Gunmen, cash and drama: Revisiting Geelong’s bank robberies

They’re armed, they’re dangerous and they’re prepared. It’s one of the most brazen crimes a crook can do, as the Geelong Advertiser lifts the lid on Geelong’s bank robberies.

It takes a certain type of crook to commit an armed robbery.

Jason Wayne Comer had made a career of it, with convictions for at least 20 such hold-ups on his rap sheet.

The prolific armed robber hit banks, post offices and the like, across multiple states.

But bank robberies in particular require a different kind of criminal; they are hold-ups that require cunning, nerve and a certain degree of planning.

They also, usually, require access to a gun and – in Comer’s case – a disregard for the wellbeing of others.

In 2021, he robbed the Geelong West branch of Bendigo Bank in a terrifying holdup.

In sentencing Comer earlier this month, County Court judge Michael Tinney noted bank robberies were “few and far between these days”.

“We have grown accustomed to soft-target armed robberies committed upon service stations or 7-Elevens,” Judge Tinney said in his sentencing remarks.

Banks on the other hand are, like jewellers, necessarily bristling with security, are not “soft targets”.

Since the turn of the century Geelong has seen just a handful of successful bank robberies – those where the perpetrators got away with some amount of money.

Most have resulted in a conviction or convictions.

Those who got caught

Kenneth James Giles

A grainy photo released by police following the robbery.

Kenneth Giles

A quiet bandit, New Zealander Kenneth James Giles robbed a Belmont bank without saying a word.

On October 16, 2003, he walked into the ANZ Branch on High St and handed a note to the teller warning he was armed.

He demanded $3000, the teller handed over less than half – $1427 – before Giles casually left the bank.

Following the robbery, officers from the armed robbery squad tracked Giles to a Laverton caravan park where he was arrested.

He told police he needed the $3000 to pay off debts, and soon pleaded guilty to robbery.

His defence lawyer told the court Giles suffering chronic depression at the time he committed the robbery, and had contemplated suicide the night before.

Giles was convicted in Geelong Magistrates Court and jailed for 12 months.

Craig Barlow and Jade England

CCTV footage of Craig Barlow taken during the 2016 robbery.

On March 11 2016, Craig Barlow and Jade England robbed the Newcomb branch of NAB, but their attempt at a clean getaway was thwarted by the unlikeliest of sources.

The couple left the ignition running in a stolen car as they went inside.

Barlow had a sawn-off shotgun concealed in the front of his jumper, while England had a screwdriver.

They demanded money, and may have gotten away with it two if it weren’t for the actions of customer Bernie Williams.

Moments after being handled a bundle of cash by startled tellers, England was grabbed by the 75-year-old.

Mr Williams told the Addy that he didn’t realise England was a woman, he “just swung around and got her in a chokehold”.

England shouted at Barlow to shoot Mr Williams, but he turned and fled with the cash, abandoning his co-offender.

Barlow was arrested on March 14 in Whittington. He’d cut the gun up with an angle grinder and thrown the pieces into the Barwon.

Like Comer, Barlow was a career crook.

He had only been released from jail four months earlier, after serving a term for an armed robbery at a chemist in 2012.

He was convicted of the 2016 job and jailed for a maximum of another three years.

Two days before the bank job, Barlow and England had attempted to rob a gaming venue, and a month before, England had robbed a petrol station at gunpoint.

She pointed a sawn-off shotgun at the cashier and told him to empty the till, fleeing with more than $460 cash, over $160 in cigarettes and a $25 CD.

England was jailed for a maximum of seven years, minus 211 days of pre-sentence detention.

Jason Wayne Comer

Jason Comer made a “career” out of armed robbery, according to the judge who sentenced him. Picture: Facebook.

On April 30, 2021, Jason Comer barged into the Geelong West branch of Bendigo bank with a shotgun concealed in a plastic bag.

He pulled out the gun – whether it was real or not was never confirmed – and demanded money.

It was fortunate, in some ways, that a cafe owner just happened to be receiving a delivery of coins at the moment Comer came in, allowing him to flee with $2500 that was being handed over.

Who knows what he would have done, given tellers wouldn’t have access to that kind of money.

That night, Comer drove to NSW in his partner’s car, before returning and then driving the black ute he used in the robbery to Queensland, where he sold it to an associate.

He was arrested when he arrived home at Avalon Airport, in a ticket booked in his associate’s name.

Judge Tinney described Comer as remorseless, and a “real menace to the community”.

He was jailed for a maximum of 13 years.

Those who got away with it

University Gunman

ANZ bank robbery

Just days before Giles’ heist, a gunman walked into the ANZ Branch at Deakin Waurn Ponds’ campus and held a gun to a teller’s head, demanding cash.

It was a brazen holdup, coinciding with the hourly change of classes, meaning there were dozens of potential witnesses.

However the robber, who was armed with a handgun, instead slipped into the crowd and was never caught.

Police described it at the time as a “fairly straight forward armed robbery” and described the impact it had on the teller as “traumatic”.

A photo of a man police were looking for was released, but he remained elusive and the crime is unsolved.

The Pink Man

CCTV footage on man wanted over the robbery. Pic supplied.

A man wearing a pink hoodie entered Newcomb Westpac just before noon on March 11, 2015, pulled out a gun and demanded money.

After putting an undisclosed amount of cash into a backpack, he fled the bank on foot and has never been caught.

Police officers scoured the surrounding area, checking CCTV and even looking in the front yard of a nearby home on Wilsons Rd, where the man may have hid as police drove by.

He then reportedly ran off past a primary school and vanished after possibly being spotted near shops on Watsons Rd.

The offender is described as being about of caucasian appearance, about 170cm tall, with stocky build and short dark hair.

It was the first successful bank robbery in Geelong since Ken Giles’ 2003 misadventure.

BUNGLES, STUFF-UPS AND BOTCH-JOBS

It takes a certain breed of criminal to pull it off – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t attempts.

Just this year, a man tried to rob Westpac in Geelong’s CBD, clobbering a teller over the head in the process.

A customer described the incident as “10 minutes of terror” and police are investigating the incident.

Les Blackler was similarly unsuccessful in May 2018.

He duiguised himself with a brown wig and black scarf and tried to rob Bendigo Bank.

Armed with a knife, Blackler put a bag on the counter demanding money – only for the tellers told him they did not have access to any.

Blackler asked a second time and got the same response, before leaving.

He got three years and nine months in prison.

In 1989, officers held a welcoming committee for a would-be bank bandit.

After being tipped off about an upcoming heist, Geelong detectives surrounded a stolen car when it pulled up outside the State Bank on Melbourne Rd.

Inside the car, police found a balaclava and sawn-off 0.22 rifle.

The the driver, a North Melbourne man, was swiftly arrested and charged.

But robberies on “major targets” had already been dropping then.

Originally published as Gunmen, cash and drama: Revisiting Geelong’s bank robberies