Police have now started investigating G4S, a private firm, in a bid to unravel the Barclays Bank ATM heist that has shocked the country.
This is after it emerged that G4S enjoys unlimited access to ATM operations, including maintenance, physical manning, loading of cash and storage of liquid cash.
“The Barclays Bank money is stored in G4S stores. They only tell them which ATMs to load and what amount,” a source said.
Detectives from the Economic and Commercial Crimes Unit and Cyber Crime team spent the third day running analysing the bank’s and G4S systems to establish where the breach originated from.
“Barclays has outsourced most of its operations. Investigations are covering a wider scope of those suspected to be directly linked to the incidents, and in this case, those who control the systems and those operating on the periphery,” a senior officer privy to the investigations was quoted by People Daily.
The ATMs have been examined to establish if any malware was run that made the cash loaded rejected and pushed to the reject bin where it was collected by the suspects.
According to detectives, ATM machines are designed to reject any note that is mutilated, wrinkled to dispense or if a multiple pick occurs. If tampered with, all the cash loaded can be rejected.
They examined the ATMs to establish if any malware was run that made the cash loaded rejected and pushed to the reject bin where it was collected by the suspects.
By Monday evening, the police had narrowed down investigations to a technical team and cash loaders, who attended the three installations immediately before the heist was reported.
The Banking Fraud Investigation Unit (BFIU) and a team from the Serious Crime Unit believe the theft that included dismantling of security surveillance systems was well coordinated with likely collusion between internal and external players.
The officers also believe that money meant for at least two ATMs may not have been loaded into the machines by those assigned to reload them.
According to police reports, Ksh.6.29 million was robbed from an ATM at Mutindwa area, Ksh.4.315 million at Kenyatta National Hospital and Ksh.1 million at Mater Hospital.
A police report indicated that the surveillance camera at Mater Hospital had been smeared with petroleum jelly to obstruct view.
At Mutindwa area, police said they established that the ATM is not covered by CCTV cameras and is also not manned by any guard.
So far, five people had been arrested in connection with the heist.