Guard 'shot, faked robbery'

2007-10-02 21:29

Bloemfontein - A Hartswater security guard who was slightly hurt during a bank robbery had been arrested for the crime, police said on Tuesday.

Police spokesperson Hendrik Swart said police were now investigating a case of theft and defeating the ends of justice.

"It was alleged that a security guard of a well known company in Hartswater stole an undisclosed sum of money from a bank in Hartswater," said Swart.

Police said the guard also claimed that he had been shot by armed robbers.

Swart said after an investigation, all the allegations of a robbery that occurred on Monday last week, turned out to be false.

Police said the 35-year-old security guard earlier had claimed that he had been robbed by a number of armed men when he was about to attend to money at the bank.

"He was even shot in the left shoulder, although the injury was not that serious."

Swart said after the guard was questioned again on Monday, he admitted that he pretended that he had been robbed.

"It also seems as if the guard shot himself in an effort to fake the robbery."

Police recovered almost all the money in the vicinity of Taung.

Swart said two more people had been arrested and would appear in the Hartswater Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

- SAPA