Yesterday they pulled off a daring mid-morning armed robbery in the parking lot of Scotia Bank's branch on the Northern Highway and if they had successfully escaped & 28-year-old Kevin Sutherland and 19-year-old Ryan Wellcome would have had $57,000 in cash to spend over the Easter weekend.
But as we reported last night the two robbers didn't get far because they were nabbed by police who were in the area. And not only won't they have their stolen money to spend this Easter but Wellcome and Sutherland also won't have their freedom. This afternoon both men were charged in Magistrate's Court with robbery and were remanded to the Hattieville Prison until May 5th.
Police believe that Sutherland and Wellcome followed an employee of the Fort Street Tourism Village as she went to the Scotia Bank Northern Highway Branch to deposit $27,000 in U.S. currency, $3,000 in Belize currency, and another $20,000 in checks.
The victim had already parked and was walking from her vehicle to the bank when she was accosted by Wellcome and Sutherland. They ran with her bag, grabbed her 9 millimeter gun, and fired a shot for good measure.
That would spell the demise of their robbery because that shot alerted a team from the ADU which responded. Wellcome and Sutherland were chased into the Belama where they were eventually cornered on a dead end street. All the money as well as the stolen nine-millimeter gun was recovered. Her cell phone was also stolen but that wasn't recovered.
Kevin Sutherland has previous convictions for drug trafficking while Ryan Wellcome was has no previous convictions. He was previously charged in connection with a murder but the charges in that case were withdrawn.