The Belgian who committed the particularly violent robbery at Brink’s in Best in 2013 will be sentenced on appeal to two years longer in prison than the ten that the court imposed on him. He was previously sentenced to 22 years in Luxembourg for a robbery that followed shortly after.
The court calls the robbery at the money transport company, in which the police were later shot at, ‘of unprecedented brutality’. It was “executed with military precision,” and it’s a wonder no lives were lost.
One night in March 2013, Brink’s staff in Best saw a shower of sparks at their gate. It was cut open by a couple of masked men. They walked to the emergency door and simply blew it up.
Inside was a money truck that had just been unloaded. The carts were also cut open, on which the men took 24 money bags, with more than 150,000 euros. When that was in bags, they poured gasoline and set the car on fire.
Guardrail screwed
Brink’s is located close to the Eindhoven-Tilburg highway. A section of the central steel guardrail had been screwed there beforehand, so that the getaway car, a fast BMW, could immediately proceed to the A2 and then onto the A67 to Belgium. That went at more than 200 kilometers per hour.
Police were ready at the Eersel exit so that the car took the exit and drove in the direction of Bergeijk. The police went after them, but stopped when they came under fire. The men were accompanied by Kalashnikovs and Uzis. They managed to escape.
Two weeks later, there was a similar heavily armed robbery in Luxembourg that went wrong. A man, Dogan S. (now 50) was caught and convicted. Because things were so similar, the Netherlands got its. DNA, which was also on the unscrewed piece of guardrail.
Six months less punishment
His case came before the Brabant court in 2018. public prosecutor Erna Vrijhoeven then demanded the maximum possible sentence of twelve years. He got ten. The prosecutor also asked this on appeal, but the court gave an extra two years. Because the case is so old, it takes six months from that.
What she takes very seriously is the brutal violence of the robbers. Dogan S. is a career criminal of the worst kind. He also previously committed a bank robbery by taking the director and his family hostage.
In Best, two men from Brink’s had locked themselves in the money truck, but heard the grinder trying to open the car and saw the flames rise a moment later. The pursuing police also thought they would not survive.