‘99% of bank robs aided by insiders’

A ranking Caloocan City police official revealed yesterday that 99 percent of bank robberies in Metro Manila involved bank employees and security guards, labeled by police as "moles or fingers" who provide vital information to syndicates before a heist is pulled off.

At the same time Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, Station Intelligence and Investigation Division (SIID) chief, chided bank officials for their "non-cooperation" in helping solve the robberies.

"Syndicate fingers or moles, usually lowly paid staff, including security guards, figure in about 99 percent of bank robberies," Borromeo said.

He said the usual stake out and surveillance conducted by bank robbers are no longer enough for them to guarantee a successful heist of a bank.

Borromeo, who recently met with some 35 bank officials in the city for a briefing following three successive bank robberies in the city, said the "fingers" who have free access inside the bank, usually feed syndicates such information as banking hours, peak and low hours, schedule of cash deliveries by armored vehicles and movement of personnel.

The information provided by the "fingers" is used by the syndicate in staging quick, precise attacks on their targets.

Borromeo added that even ranking bank officials in dire need of cash or driven by the prospects of quick money succumb to the syndicates’ lure.

He noted that those most easily corrupted by robbery syndicates are janitors, messengers and security guards.

Borromeo urged bank officials to cooperate fully with police investigating a robbery.

"It’s unfortunate that bank officials are usually very uncooperative. It is our impression that they do not really care. They have nothing to lose. After all, the insurance company will take care of the lost money so they let it go at that," he said.

Borromeo also lamented that most banks, despite the risk of losing millions to the robbers, do not so invest in monitoring devices such as closed circuit television.

"We hope top management acts on this." CCTVs are effective deterrents. Bank robbers, who know that an establishment has one installed, will think twice before pulling off a heist," Borromeo said.

There are about 95 banks in Caloocan City, but not one of them has a CCTV system installed, according to police.