A former G4S security guard has been jailed for three years and four months in the United Kingdom after using his old work uniform to trick bank staff into handing over £117,200, then fleeing to Ghana with the money for nearly four years.
40-year-old Kwabena Kissi walked into a Santander branch in Brixton, south London, on July 5, 2022, wearing a helmet with the visor down, a face mask, and a G4S uniform from a job he had resigned from two years earlier, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
CCTV footage played in court showed staff buzzing him into the secure office, where they handed him bags of cash, believing he was on a routine collection.
Kissi calmly walked out with the money in a briefcase, changed his clothes nearby, transferred the cash into a bin bag, and left the scene in an Uber.
Prosecutor Imogen Nelson told the court that Santander’s vault manager, Otis Williams, had bagged up £256,000 for collection that day across eleven bags.
When one member of staff remarked that Kissi had arrived early, he told them he was on a new route, and no suspicion was raised at that point. Staff only grew concerned when Kissi failed to return for a second pickup and realised something was wrong once the genuine G4S courier turned up for the actual collection.
Kissi returned to Accra a day after the theft and lived here with his ailing mother for close to four years.
His scheme, however, fell apart when he returned to the UK on March 26 this year and made the mistake of booking an Uber using his real name and phone number, the same phone he had used during the 2022 heist.
Police, who had been monitoring for his return, arrested him as he landed at Gatwick Airport. He initially claimed mistaken identity, but officers matched the handset to the one used in the original fraud.
In April, Kissi admitted fraud by false representation. A second charge of possessing criminal property was dropped.
His lawyer, Piers Walter, told the court Kissi had gone to Ghana to care for his mother, who was in financial difficulty at the time and has since died of heart failure.
Judge Rosa Dean said she was sceptical that caring for his mother was the real reason for the trip, telling Kissi the evidence pointed to him fleeing to evade detection. She said he had exploited his “inside knowledge” of the bank’s collection routine and left staff badly shaken, though she noted she was glad none of them faced disciplinary action over the fraud.
Detective Constable Stuart Ponder, who led the Metropolitan Police investigation, said CCTV and phone evidence linked Kissi to the getaway vehicle, and that officers feared he might never return to the UK once he left the day after the heist. He said the case showed the force’s commitment to pursuing high-value thefts regardless of how long it takes.
