ATM theft: Bulgarians denied bail

By Angela Nalumansi and Norah Chandiru

Four Bulgarians who are accused of trying to steal money from Stanbic Bank accounts were denied bail by Buganda Road court magistrate Julius Borore.

Court there after remanded the the accused for another three weeks behind bars.

The Bulgarians presented nine sureties, all Ugandans, before court yet they could not disclose the accused’s place of aboard.

They claimed that they have known the foreigners for the past six months.

Magistrate Borore denied the three accused bail on grounds that they have no fixed place of aboard in Uganda and that there punishment of three years might tempt them to flee the country.

He said they can still apply for bail in the High Court or Chief Magistrates Court.

The sureties brought forward by the accused’s lawyer, Dalton Oponye not only failed to reveal their own residence and that of the accused, but also their occupation.

Ivan Ganchey, Milen Katsarki and Adrian Domitrov were caught trying to steal money from a Stanbic Bank ATM in Natete in February this year.

Court charged them with 30 counts of forgery.

Investigations into the matter were initially delayed when the trio claimed they did not understand English.

They did not take a plea claiming they did not understand the language which was being used.

Upon being arrested, 45 ATM cards were recovered and a list of their pin numbers in their car. Their house was searched and two laptops, an external hard drive, soldering wire and an ATM reader were found.

According to Kampala Metropolitan CID boss, Charles Katarambi, CCTV cameras from banks showed the suspects carrying out the thefts.

They will reappear in court on September 24 where they will apply for bail.