STRATEGIC PARTNERS
February 5, 2003
MONTREAL -- Martin Bissonnette, a former employee of the Securicorarmored car company, and two current Securicor employees have been tied to a string of thefts of Montreal-area ATMs.
According to a report in the Montreal Gazette, 26-year-old Bissonnette pleaded guilty to nine charges related to thefts in which ATMs in Montreal, Terrebonne and Longueuil were cleaned out.
An employee, 24-year-old Jean-Sébastien Tremblay, has been suspended by Securicor and was charged on Jan. 29 with breaking and entering, and conspiracy. Montreal police say they will arrest another Securicor employee soon, who also been suspended by the company.
The armed-robbery squad has been investigating the thefts since April. In all, three suspects have been arrested -- Tremblay, Bissonnette and an unidentified dispatcher for the CN railway police.
"Right off the bat, from the first investigation, we realized something was really wrong," said Commander André Bouchard, head of the police department's major crimes division. "To get behind those machines, you have to access a door with an alarm system and a password. Plus, you need a special key. There was no damage to the backs of the machines. So somebody had a key."
The alarms did not go off in three of four thefts. So investigators immediately suspected an inside job, according to the Gazette.
Bouchard said police had "complete cooperation" from Securicor as they asked employees to help identify people caught by surveillance cameras.
In January, the investigation led to Bissonnette, who had been fired as a guard before the thefts started. He pleaded guilty in Longueuil to nine charges arising from the ATM thefts, and conspiracy to rob an armored car. Bouchard said the armored heist was never carried out.
"During the investigation we were able to find that three of (the men) were preparing to rob an armored truck," he said. "We were happy (it didn't happen) because during those robberies ... there's almost always shooting involved."
