Since the start of the year, police say 35 armed robberies have been reported. Of those, 27 have involved guns, and 23 have occurred since August.
From daring daylight armed robberies to opportunistic jewellery and purse snatches, the recent spike in robberies across Grand Cayman has police concerned, as the busy Christmas season draws near.
According to police, the robberies are heavily concentrated in George Town and primarily target small retail complexes in the late evenings, usually between Thursday and Saturday.
“We have identified what we believe are three groups… of at least 10 persons,” Commissioner of Police Derek Byrne said at a press conference on Thursday, 17 Nov. “They are known to us, most of them have spent time in custody and are known to the prison population, and are not long out of prison, having served sentences for other related crimes.”
Byrne said the 10 suspects are part of three smaller groups and are collectively “loosely associated”. However, police said they are not an organised criminal gang.
False number plates used on getaway vehicles
“We see three cars constantly in the picture and we see that they are changing number plates on the cars being used… and that actually coincides with a number of number plates that have been stolen from parked vehicles in Grand Cayman over the past couple months,” said Byrne.
He said police earlier this year seized a vehicle that they believed had been used in a number of robberies. It was returned to its owner, who said the vehicle had been taken without his permission or knowledge, but was used again in the recent spate of robberies. Police have now seized the vehicle again and it is being kept as evidence.
It’s not just premises that the robbers are targetting. Police said, in one instance, they attempted to rob a Domino’s pizza delivery driver, and in another, a man was robbed when he showed up with cash to buy a car he had found for sale online.
So far, three people have been arrested in relation to this recent spate of robberies, but no one had been charged as of 17 Nov.
The first arrested person was released after the victim – a suspected illegal numbers seller – refused to cooperate with police. The other two suspects remain in police custody. Only one of them was arrested in relation to the robberies; the other is suspected of having committed robberies but was arrested for unrelated offences, police said.
In response to the increase in crime, police say they have stepped up all forms of preventative, proactive and reactive policing.
“Our job is to go out and get these people, tackle them, dismantle them, get them before the courts, prosecute and convict them,” said Byrne. “I think they deserve custodial sentences for their actions and I think that is exactly what they will get.”
Varying motives fuelling the robberies
Police say the need for quick and easy cash is fuelling the increase in robberies, and small businesses that lack crime-prevention measures are becoming prime targets.
Of the 35 robberies, 10 occurred in commercial complexes, such as the recent raid on a small grocery store during which armed gunmen assaulted a shopkeeper before making off with an undisclosed sum of cash.
Other easy targets are illegal lottery sellers. So far, six robberies surrounding illegal gambling were reported this year.
The commissioner said, “Police are after the predicate offences, so what does that mean if we are called out to a robbery scene and we discover it is site of illegal gambling? We will deal with the robbery because that is what we were called out for, and on a later date we will deal with the illegal gambling.”
Cayman is still a safe place
Despite the recent increase in robberies, police say Cayman is still a safe place and the business and residential communities have nothing to fear.
“In general, you have to be very much in the wrong place at the wrong time to become a victim of this,” said Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown, who spoke at the press conference.
With the Christmas holiday season swiftly approaching, bringing an uptick in retail activity, Byrne says his officers have been deployed to commercial complexes across the island to provide business owners with tips and to advise them on how to make their premises less attractive targets for criminals.
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