By Catherine Sasman WINDHOEK Three armed men robbed the Gobabis branch of Standard Bank yesterday, making it the fourth time in two months that branches of the bank have been targets of hold-ups. Just before nine in the morning, the men reportedly walked past an armed security guard at the front door, jumped over the counter and robbed the bank of about N$200 000, according to Standard Bank Managing Director, Mpumzi Pupuma. The police at the town followed the robbers as they drove away in what was speculated at the scene of the crime to be a white Nissan Nervara. But one of the robbers, the driver of the getaway car, was apprehended around 11h00 in the east of the town. No cash has been found yet, but with the bank’s forensic investigator on the scene more investigations are expected to yield more information. No details of the robbers are yet known. Pupuma said that the identity of the men could also not be ascertained from the bank’s CCTV camera footage. Branches of the bank have been plagued by robberies since March. On March 09, the Klein Windhoek branch was robbed of N$197 547.32. The Okahandja branch was next, with the robbers reportedly making off with N$217 069.03 on April 23. An amount of N$59 000 was recovered of this stolen money. On May 14, the Standard Bank branch in the Northern Industrial area of Windhoek was robbed of N$95 761.98. Pupuma yesterday said that none of the 13 staff and about five to six customers in the bank at the time of the robbery in Gobabis was injured. They are all being treated for possible trauma. “The police reacted very quickly after the call from the bank,” said Pupuma. He pointed out that there were no reasons to believe that any Standard Bank staff were involved, stressing that it was “definitely not an inside job”. “It is not clear why Standard Bank is the only target; we suspect that this has to do with the fact that we are the biggest bank in Namibia with the most points of representation, and also in more remote and quiet areas,” he surmised. Without giving away any details, Pupuma said that the bank had since the first robbery reviewed its security procedures and measures. “We have also reiterated and sharpened all our safety and security measures with all our staff in the branches and service centres.” Head of operations at the head office in Windhoek, Richard Meeks, said the security guard on the scene had “acted accordingly” with the bank’s safety procedures. He also noted that at this stage of the investigation no link could be found to the previous robberies. The head office further reported that the robberies have not affected customer accounts and deposits. The bank urges members of the public to come forward with any information they may have. It will set up a hotline as well and a reward for information is to be discussed today.