Employee was in a 'relationship' with HSBC Operations Centre hold-up suspect

MaltaToday is informed that the employee, said to have been in possession of a swipe card to access the myriad of electronic doors inside the secured complex in Qormi, has been interrogated many times by the police, as investigations have shown that it was her card that was used by the suspects to get access through most of the doors they managed to get through.

It has yet to be established whether the swipe card was deliberately handed over to the suspect, or taken from the employee without her knowing.

Darren Debono, 33 from Marsascala and Vincent Muscat, 48 have been charged with the attempted murder of two police officers and the attempted heist at the HSBC Operations Centre.

Meanwhile, Mario Bartolo, manager of HSBC Centre security, said this morning in court that procedure in place that day,  included security access cards rather than keys, which the staff could use to access various parts of the building. “Every staff member had a card, with access restricted to some members of staff.”

When asked about procedures, Mario Bartolo said that these were security sensitive issues, and his evidence was ordered to be heard behind closed doors.

During this morning’s sitting, PC Kenneth Ciangura gave a detailed account of what happened outside the HSBC Operations Centre on June 30.

PC Ciangura was one of the two Mobile Squad officers who responded  to a call from the  HQ control room to investigate a suspicious car in front of HSBC Centre in Qormi,

“We were told that there were three persons in the car but when we arrived, we only saw one man in the car,” PC Ciangura said, adding that the suspicious drove slowly out of the parking space.

“We drove behind it and as soon as the driver realised he was being followed, he sped off and lost him.”  

The officer explained that he returned to the HSBC Operations Centre and parked a little bit further from the ATM next to the building.

“I got out of the patrol car and walked up to the bank when I came face to face with three men wearing dark suits and wigs.

“The three suddenly ran back into the bank and started to shoot at me, while I returned fire and called for back-up while both myself and my colleague covered each other as shots rang out in succession towards us,” Ciangura said.

More than 60 shots were fired at the police, while another 30 rounds were fired back until a Kia Sorrento drove past them, stopped in front of the bank and the three men run into it and got away as the shooting continued.

The policemen fired at the back of the Sorrento and then they gave chase, but lost the van a few minutes later.

PC Kurt Gauci who was with PC Ciangura during the shootout gave the same explanation of events.