On Friday, 13 October detectives from South Australia Police Serious and Organised Crime Branch attached to Operation Coy arrested a 73 year old O’Sullivan’s Beach man for 10 aggravated robberies using a firearm and 1 attempted aggravated robbery using a firearm. He will appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday 16 October.
Operation Coy was initiated in 2004 to investigate a series of 10 bank robberies, and 1 attempted bank robbery across country South Australia that occurred between 2004 and 2014.
A timeline of the bank robberies is outlined in the table below:
DATE | LOCATION |
Friday, 21 May 2004 at 11:30am | ANZ Mannum |
Monday, 26 July 2004 at 11:50am | ANZ Lobethal |
Thursday 17 March 2005 at 11:30am | BANK SA Blackwood |
Monday 19 September 2005 at 2:09pm | BANK SA Mt Pleasant |
Friday, 21April 2006 at 12:02pm | BANK SA Tanunda |
Thursday, 14 December 2006 at 1:35pm | ANZ Bank Yankalilla |
Thursday, 26 July 2007 at 11:35am | BANK SA Mt Pleasant |
Friday, 14 September 2007 at 1:48pm | ANZ Bank Yankalilla |
Friday, 27 June 2008 at 11:40am | ANZ Bank Balaklava |
Friday, 26June 2009 at 11:15am | Bank SA Willunga |
Thursday, 4 September2014 at 11:39am | Bank SA Mt Pleasant |
Officer in Charge of the Serious and Organised Crime Branch, Detective Superintendent Billy Thompson said the arrest was part of an almost 20 year investigation, during which investigators left no stone unturned and importantly never gave up.
“Over the course of a decade, it is alleged this person committed 10 significant bank robberies, stealing substantial amounts of cash,” Detective Superintendent Thompson said.
“Police identified connections between the robberies early in the investigation and established Operation Coy, since that time detectives attached to Operation Coy have been painstaking in their investigations, seizing on every opportunity to advance the investigation and identify a suspect. The arrest on Friday is a direct result of all the collective work over the last 19 years.
“This investigation is a credit to all those involved and shows that SAPOL will be relentless in our search for the truth.”
