Safety box thieves hit treasure jackpot

Jessica Han’s jewellery collection was valued at R38.5m

A veritable treasure greeted the perpetrators of the First National Bank safety deposit box heists in Johannesburg when they opened the boxes.

Court papers served on the bank on Tuesday detailing each of the 60 victims’ losses – more than 2‚000 items in total – revealed the extent of the glittering array of valuables inside.

The list includes Rolex and Omega watches‚ gold and diamond jewellery worth several hundred thousand rand a piece‚ Krugerrands and cash.

Jessica Han of Johannesburg’s jewellery collection was valued at R38.5m‚ including a R5.3m diamond.

Bob and Nalini Naicker of Fourways had in their box a 22-carat gold jewellery collection worth several million rand‚ the most precious and valuable possessions of three generations of their family.

Praful Patel of Robertsham’s list of losses‚ totalling more than R2m, included jewellery worth R95‚000‚ given to his wife on their wedding day.

Ayanda Ntlabathi of Hoedspruit’s losses included a R54‚000 Omega “Constellation” watch.

The victims, who are suing First National Bank for a total R121m, claim in the papers that a clause in the bank’s safety deposit box contracts contravened the Consumer Protection Act‚ making the contract unconscionable‚ unjust‚ unreasonable and unfair in terms of the Act‚ and therefore the contract should be declared void or unenforceable.

All but six of the victims had clauses stating that the bank would not be legally responsible under any circumstances for any loss or damage that might occur to the contents of the box.

They claim that the bank’s failure to have adequate security measures in place to prevent their loss or take reasonable steps to intervene once it knew or ought to have known that a robbery was in progress was negligent and thus also a contravention of the Act.

The alleged security lapses include:

● Failure to put in place adequate CCTV monitoring of the premises.

● Failure to keep security camera systems in working order.

● Failure to ensure that the vault was locked in the Randburg branch.

● Failure to install an adequate alarm system.

● Failure to send bank employees to investigate why the alarm was activated.

● Failure to employ the services of an armed response company to respond to and investigate any security breaches upon the activation of an alarm.

The victims lost their valuables in three heists.

On December 18 2016‚ 360 boxes were stolen in an overnight break-in at the Randburg branch and on New Year’s Eve‚ thieves penetrated a vault at FNB Parktown and made off with R1.7m in cash and valuables from about 30 boxes.

In September 2015‚ what FNB calls “a small number” of safety deposit boxes were stolen from FNB in Sunnyside.

In July, FNB’s long-awaited settlement offers outraged the victims.

The offers were mostly less than 20% of the full amounts claimed‚ with many less than 10%.