Suspect in multimillion gold heist granted bail

Jan 13, 2022 News

– argues that there is no evidence in court against him

Kaieteur News – Peon Lee, 35, one of the suspects charged for participating in a multimillion dollar gold heist that took place in August last year at Wallison Enterprise located in Gordon Street, Kitty Georgetown, has been granted $450,000 bail by the high court.

Peon Lee, out on bail for the multimillion-dollar gold heist

Lee, was employed as a chief security officer by the same company that was robbed of the $20M worth of raw gold and $38M in cash. He along with another security guard, Delroy Jackson who was at the time, also employed with Wallison Enterprise, and a rank of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Keyon King, were charged indictably but the matter was taken summarily.
The GDF rank has since pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to three years in jail while Jackson and Lee claimed that they were innocent of the charge. Recently an application for high court bail was made on behalf of Lee and filed in the name of his mother. Lee through his lawyer had argued that detectives have so far failed to produce any convincing evidence to court that links him directly to the crime.
Investigators have accused him of being the master mind behind the robbery because his phone number showed up in the call logs of the GDF rank and the other security guard.
The defendant has since denied this and claimed that he had no knowledge of the robbery.
Lee alleged he was on his way to Bartica for work duties when the heist was ongoing.
It was further alleged that no stolen items were found on him. His lawyer also made the case that Lee’s name was never mentioned in a video confession made by the GDF rank.
The rank, during his confession had reportedly told investigators that it was he and Jackson that had planned the gold heist at Wallison Enterprise.
In applying for his bail, it was explained that Lee is the sole bread winner of the family and because of the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic they have been facing hardships.
After considering their argument and reasons behind the bail application the High Court decided to grant the request.
However, Lee will have to lodge his passport and report to the Providence Police Station on alternate Fridays.
He is expected to return to court on January 20, 2022 as the case against him continues.
Meanwhile police are yet to capture three other suspects wanted for the gold heist.
According to reports, three gunmen posing as customers had entered the business establishment on the morning of Thursday August 5, 2021.
They reportedly held the employees there at gun point, forced them to open a safe and then handcuffed them with plastic zip ties.
They carted off with the gold, cash, along with jewellery and phones from their victims.
Detectives were able to crack the case by tracing one of the stolen phones to a house in Sophia.
Lee and Jackson were later arrested and their investigation then led them to recovering $18M of the stolen cash in the back yard of the GDF rank, Keyon King.
The detectives had also managed to recover a car used in the heist but its driver is yet to be arrested.

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