Maybank robbery

The vehicles were kept as evidence by the Waigani National court following the trial.

The state made an application to have the vehicles returned to its owners yesterday before Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika.

Sir Gibbs ordered for two of the three vehicles to be returned.

The armored vehicle that was used in the robbery will be released to the security firm, G4S, while a blue 10 seater Land Cruiser will also be returned to its owner.

The Waigani National Court this morning sentenced two of the men to 25 years in prison while four were given 20 years in jail each.

Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika gave a concurrent sentence to the six; Casper Louis, Paul Steven, Gelison William, Hubert Korede, Stewart Korina and Samson Banaso.

They were convicted for conspiring to steal and stealing.

The charge for stealing they stood trial for is under the amended section 372(1)(A)(7) of the Criminal Code Act that was done on Sept 18, 2013. The Robbery was committed on Oct 4, 2013.

Casper Louis of Salamua, Morobe Province pleaded guilty on March 7 for his involvement with others in the Maybank robbery, where K5.9 million was taken by G4S security guards during transportation to the Central bank.

No trial was conducted in his case because he admitted to the allegations. He will now return to court for submissions on sentence.

Louis is among the other four men who were employed by G4S at the time of the offense.

The others are Paul Steven, Gelison William, Hubert Korede and Stewart Korina. Samson Banaso was not an employee of G4S.

Five accused; Paul Steven, Samson Banaso, Hubert Korede, Stewart Korina and Gelison William have been on trial for the past three weeks.

They will return to court on Thursday morning where trial judge, Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika will be addressed by their lawyer and the state on whether there is enough evidence to convict them.

All evidence in the trial came to a close on Wednesday afternoon, after the last accused, Samson Banaso took the stand to give evidence in the trial.

The trial into the robbery continued into day eight today for the seven accused persons; Alphonse Samson, Paul Steven and Samson Banaso from the Eastern Highlands Province, Sonix Alowale of Enga, Hubert Korede and Stewart Korina of Northern Province and Gelison William of Milne Bay Province.

Louis, Steven, William, Korede and Korina were employed by G4S at the time of the alleged offense.  Samson, Alowale and Banaso were not employed by G4S.