Brisbane armored guard guilty in brazen series of robberies
Brisbane AU June 24 2017 A former armoured cash-car driver who was the mastermind of a brazen series of armed robberies which netted $176,000 – including an “inside job” on a fellow security cash guard — has been jailed.
Bradley Scott Kennedy, 39, was in the District Court in Brisbane where Judge Terry Martin heard that Kennedy used his share of the proceeds to finance a garage-based hydroponic cannabis operation at Eagleby.
Kennedy was sentenced to nine years jail along with his cousin Dean Michael Johnson who was his loyal BMW-driving getaway driver and “lookout” for two of the robberies.
Johnson got five-and-a-half years jail.
The pair were found guilty of armed robbery after a nine-day jury trial.
The first robbery was on June 20, 2011 when Kennedy approached his mate Barry Reid who worked at Secutor Securities and proposed that they should stage a robbery.
Reid agreed and Kennedy got his 16-year-old nephew to rob Reid of $55,000 near the Acacia Ridge Banking Centre on Kerry Rd and Beaudesert Rd at 2pm on June 20, 2011.
Reid was robbed by the 16-year-old as he changed his tyre on his white Toyota Yaris, an “anonymous” looking car used by Secutor to transport cash inconspicuously known in the business as a “soft skin”.
Reid admitted he punctured the tyre himself using a screwdriver in order to aid the “staged’’ robbery.
Reid was at the banking centre so he could bank the $55,000.
Reid initially told police that his Yaris was stolen after he had an object placed in the back of his neck and he was told to “get on the ground.
In two more robberies, this time of service stations, Kennedy provided security codes to robber Simeon Cassar who went on to rob the BP service station at Eastern Heights at 1.45am on July 31, 2011, as well as the BP service station on Beenleigh-Redland Bay Rd, Cornubia, at 2am on August 11 2012.
Kennedy provided security PIN-codes to Cassar who used them to steal $67,000 and $55,000 from ATM machines within the service stations.
Kennedy knew the PINS because he either got them when he used to fill the ATMs himself when he worked for Eagle Farm and Hamilton-based security company Secutor until June 2011 – three weeks before the first robbery of his mate Reid – or from associates who still worked there, the court was told.
Kennedy worked for Secutor from 2008 until 2011 in an armoured vehicle.
Dean Johnson was involved in the Eastern Heights robbery, acting as a lookout.
The case was cracked after Reid and the 16-year-old confessed to police and agreed to give evidence against Kennedy and Johnson.
Kennedy and Johnson were convicted even though they did not personally commit the offences because they were “enabling, counselling and assisting” the robber Cassar they were found culpable.
Prosecutor Ron Swanwick told the court that police discovered Kennedy was running a hydro cannabis operation when they tapped his phone after the robberies.
Judge Martin told the pair that “neither of you is in any way truly remorseful” for their crimes.
