Banking officials were busy yesterday tabulating accounts as they investigated what’s being described as the biggest automatic teller machine (ATM)?breach in Barbados.
Well-placed police sources said an estimated half-million dollars was stolen from several ATMs. All of those along Wildey, St Michael, including CIBC FirstCaribbean, Scotia Bank and Republic Bank, were targeted.
The sources said the thieves also hit cash machines at Limegrove Lifestyle Centre in Holetown, St James; Six Roads, St Philip, and St Lawrence Gap, Christ Church.
Police have arrested two Caucasian men, said to be Bulgarians, who were arrested at Grantley Adams International Airport on Sunday night as they attempted to leave with the cash. They were also found to be in possession of laptops and card readers which police believe were used in the sophisticated heists.
They are also working on the theory that a third man may have escaped by leaving on an earlier flight.
When contacted yesterday, president of the Bankers’ Association, Horace Cobham, said there was no panic among the banks even though he confirmed this was the first time all of them had been targeted.
