A grandmother today told of how she believed the p
A grandmother today told of how she believed the power of prayer caused an armed robber to drop bundles of cash, the Old Bailey heard.
Monica Holder, 59, said she began to pray when an armed robber pointed a handgun at staff at a branch of Lloyds Bank.
The jury watched a video of the raid in which a man alleged to be Michael Bailey, 36, makes off with pnds stlg 3,700 – but dropped hundreds of pounds at the till and door as he left the bank.
Mrs Holder told the court that when the video showed her lips during the raid in Tottenham, north London, she was praying to the Almighty.
‘As I started to feel the blood of Jesus the money started to drop.
‘The robber started to shake and get really scared.
He dropped some money at the door as well.
‘
Mrs Holder, who was living at Dylan Thomas House, Hornsey at the time of the hold-up in November 1998, said she had since moved to Finsbury Park.
Mrs Holder, a mother of five, grandmother of four children and great-grandmother of one, then referred to Flying Squad officers as members of the Firing Squad.
Bailey, who now lives in Hove, East Sussex but used to live in Ilford, east London was eventually caught by police using high-tech ‘facial mapping software’.
Through examining videos of bank raids, police were able to identify the robber in a string of armed raids as Bailey.
Old-fashioned ID parade evidence and information from a Brighton associate of Bailey helped put the 36-year-old in the frame for the stick-ups.
He is accused of stealing nearly pnd stlg 24,000 in a series of eight bank raids across London between November 1997 and February 1999.
The court heard that during Bailey’s first raid he was so softly spoken one of the bank clerks had to ask him to speak up.
After he strolled into a branch of TSB wearing clothes that made him ‘look like a football manager’ Angela Healy told him she could not hear what he was saying.
When Miss Healy asked him to speak louder he barked in a strong London accent: ‘Give me the money, now.
All of it’.
During the heist on TSB at (6) the Broadway, Stratford in 18 November 1997, Miss Healy said in a statement:
‘I was on the till when I noticed a man come to the counter.
‘He said something to me but I couldn’t hear it.
He then raised his voice and said ‘Give me the money.
Now.
All of it’.
The terrified clerk noticed the man was wielding a seven-inch-long revolver as she plunged her hands into the till, grabbing bundles of 10, 20 and 50 pnds stlg notes.
She said she knew the exact amount was pnd stlg 2,815 as she had just carefully cashed up.
Another bank clerk, Debbie Singh, described Bailey as wearing a nylon jacket ‘sort of like a football manager wears at a match,’ in a statement read to the court.
Customer Richard Champkins said the robber hurried through the doors and told him to back off.
‘I thought he was just in a hurry until he got to the counter and realised what had happened,’ Mr Champkins said in a statement.
By the time of Bailey’s second raid, his delivery of his robbery ‘lines’ was now much louder and clearer, it was alleged.
Bank clerk Patricia Watts told of the frightening moment when she was robbed by Bailey, at the TSB at High Street, Hornchurch, Essex, on 24 April 1998.
Miss Watts, a pretty blonde wearing a pink cardigan, said that she was dealing with a female customer when a man wearing a bomber jacket shoved the woman out of the way.
The robber’s voice was ‘very loud and gruff’, and had a strong London accent, she said.
‘He just started shouting and pointing the gun, saying ‘This is serious.
Just give me the money,’, the cashier told the court.
‘He just kept calling me ‘bitch!’ over and over again.
‘
She said her colleagues Susan Smith and Samantha Carlton also handed over cash to the cockney crook.
One of Miss Watts’ colleagues – Susan Smith – slipped a smoke bomb among the wads of cash.
All the while, Bailey was banging the handle of the gun on the counter, the court heard.
Outside, bank customer Susan Scanlan saw a bizarre sight – Bailey running down the High Street clutching a white plastic bag trailing pink smoke.
Mrs Scanlan agreed that it is not very often you see someone walking down a high street with pink smoke coming out of a bag.
‘It did rather catch the eye’, the shopper said.
As it was such an extraordinary sight, ‘she made sure she got a good look,’ the court heard.
Bailey, of (21) Seafield Road, Hove, denies eight bank robberies and eight offences of possession of imitation firearms with intent.
The charges against Bailey are: robbing TSB Stratford on 18 November 1997, making off with pnd stlg 2,815 from Angela Healy; TSB Hornchurch, Essex on 24 April 1998, stealing pnd stlg 4,959 from Patricia Watts ; and TSB Barkingside on 27 May 1998 stealing pnd stlg 3,909 from Kay Dove.
He is also accused of returning to rob TSB Stratford on 11 November 1998, stealing pnd stlg 2,065 from Kalwinder Kaur; Lloyds in Tottenham 12 November, 1998, stealing pnd stlg 3,700 from Paul Goldie; and also returning to TSB, Hornchurch Essex on 8 December 1998, stealing pnd stlg 2,555 from Alan Jeyes.
At Barclays Tottenham, on 7 January 1999, he is accused of stealing pnd stlg 2,590 from Jackie Binkle; and at TSB Leytonstone on 4 February 1999, stealing pnd stlg 1,005 from Lee Mayo.
The trial continues.
ends
