A FORMER St Andrews University honours student yesterday admitted
conspiring to snatch council wages.
However, Robert Cadiz denied taking part in an earlier bank robbery
during his trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.
He is charged with conspiring with Paul Macklin to assault and rob
employees of Aberdeen District Council's contract services division of
wages between May and July this year.
The two are also alleged to have loitered in a car in Powis Terrace,
Aberdeen, on July 7, with firearms and ammunition concealed in holdalls,
and awaited the delivery of wages to Aberdeen District Council's
contract services division.
Mr Macklin denies assaulting four police constables by presenting a
loaded sawn-off shotgun at them and repeatedly threatening to shoot
them.
Cadiz also denies assaulting and robbing staff at the Clydesdale Bank
in North Deeside Road, Aberdeen, of #2910 while acting with another
person on May 19 this year.
Cadiz, 21, formerly of Market Street, St Andrews, told the court that
on May 19 this year he was driving around the city with Mr Macklin when
they heard a newsflash about the Clydesdale Bank robbery and drove there
as this was the only excitement of the day.
Cadiz told Mr Hugh Matthews, QC, defending, he was not telling the
truth when he told police he committed the robbery.
He admitted conspiring to snatch the council wages with another man he
named as Martin Anderson.
Cadiz claimed police told him: ''We are not going to go away until you
tell us you did it.''
Cadiz also claimed he was told a police firearms team would go to his
parents' home and ''shove guns under my parents' faces''.
Cross-examined by Advocate-depute Steve McGibbon, Cadiz agreed he
''went shopping for an armed robber''. He said he met a man called
Martin Anderson in a Glasgow public house.
Cadiz claimed that on July 7 he and Anderson were attempting to cut
through a fence to gain access to the district council premises. Passing
traffic held them up and Anderson left the scene.
Cadiz said he phoned Mr Macklin who picked him up. Cadiz claimed he
was showing his friend what he had planned when police arrived.
Cadiz denied telling lies to help Mr Macklin, a friend since the two
went to Aberdeen's Robert Gordon's College.
Mr Macklin, 21, said he travelled across the city and saw Cadiz beside
some bushes with bags which he was told contained tools. Mr Macklin said
he picked up one of the bags and ran off with it as police appeared on
the scene.
Final speeches in the case are expected today.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article