Alleged mastermind of Richmond Armaguard heist makes bail bid after jury dismissed
The alleged mastermind of a movie-style heist — which saw a crew pose as road workers to block a Melbourne Armaguard van carrying millions — could walk from court after a jury was dismissed.
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The accused mastermind behind one of Melbourne’s most infamous armed robberies will make a bid for freedom after the jury set to determine his fate was dismissed.
Twenty-five years after the movie-style heist made headlines, police hopes of a conviction were today dashed when a jury failed to reach a verdict.
Champion kick boxer Pasquale “Percy” Lanciana pleaded not guilty to the 1994 robbery — dubbed the Richmond road gang robbery — which saw a five-man crew pose as road workers to block an Armaguard van carrying $2.4 million from the Reserve Bank in June 1994.
But after deliberating for four days, a jury of eleven failed to find Lanciana guilty or not guilty of the crime.
After more than two years in custody awaiting trial, he will make his eighth bail application tomorrow with a retrial not scheduled until April next year.
During the five week trial before Judge Michael O’Connell, prosecutors argued Lanciana had allegedly laundered his cut of the stolen cash through dodgy bank transactions and property deals and had confessed to a female associate he was responsible for the robbery.
The secret witness, whose identity is suppressed, cried in court as she told how she wore a wire after pressure from detectives in 2014.
Covert recordings played to the court heard Lanciana tell the woman: “I didn’t do it, I just organised it”.
But defence barrister Mark Gumbleton argued that besides the recordings, there was no other evidence to prove Lanciana was involved.
Over two weeks the jury was taken through a series of alternate suspects and “rogues gallery of crooks” active in Melbourne’s underbelly during the 1990s.
Mr Gumbleton had argued it was impossible for a jury to ignore the dozens of suspects and their criminal associates who “possibly, probably, almost certainly” committed the crime.
Former detective in charge of the 1994 operation, Ross McKenzie, revealed police had investigated dozens of underworld figures and their associates linked to the robbery but it wasn’t until 2013 that contemporary detectives turned their attention to Lanciana.
Mr McKenzie also named Armaguard employee John Johnston, who was riding in the back of the truck when it was hijacked, as the crew’s “inside man”.
MUNSTER’S SON LINKED TO HEIST, COURT TOLD
In the final days of the trial, the court was played bugged recordings of Lanciana’s conversations with his son in 2014 before his arrest.
The tapes suggested Lanciana knew police were closing in on him, telling his son when the arrests come “it’ll be front page news”.
“This is a two million plus robbery, they say it was done like a movie,” he said
“This one seems to have all the attention on it … police will want that.”
“For them it’ll be ‘we’ve cracked the case’ — well you haven’t cracked the case yet buddy.”
Lanciana will have his bail application heard Wednesday morning.