Standard Bank in Van Riebeeck Road, Kuils River, which was robbed of R500 000 in 2014. (Screenshot / Google Street View)
- A divorced Cape Town couple has been sentenced for a 2014 bank robbery.
- The pair was found to have planned to steal R3 million from a Cape Town bank.
- The couple enlisted the help of three others to carry out the robbery.
A divorced couple from Cape Town have been handed 15-year jail terms for conspiring to rob a bank of R3 million almost a decade ago.
Carmen and Kensley Kolbee were sentenced in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for the November 2014 robbery.
The couple conspired to rob Standard Bank and carried out a robbery of the bank’s branch in Kuils River. Carmen was the branch manager at the time, the court heard.
Prosecutor Christiaan de Jongh argued that Carmen divulged her inside knowledge of the bank’s operations to her husband.
“The two had financial problems and were in desperate need of money. Kensley, who owned an electrical company at the time, recruited Ebrahim Isaacs, who was his then brother-in-law. Isaacs recruited Samorien Hattas, Leroy Ackerman and Afzal Kazie to execute the robbery,” said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.
Kazie turned State witness in exchange for immunity from prosecution, Ntabazalila said.
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Isaacs, Hattas and Ackerman also entered into plea and sentencing agreements with the State, and agreed to testify against Carmen and Kensley in exchange for lesser sentences.
The trial, which started in September 2017, concluded on 21 June 2024 after more than 20 witnesses and the accused gave evidence.
Ntabazalila said:
The accused were convicted of the charge preferred against them and were sentenced to 15 years of direct imprisonment.
News24 previously reported that the accused were arrested during pre-dawn raids at a series of houses in Athlone in September 2016.
The arrests followed an armed robbery at the bank, in which a group of people forced their way into the premises as staff were arriving for work. They held the staff hostage and later fled with more than R500 000.
