Six men who have been found guilty for the Bank of the South Pacific Samabula branch robbery in 2012 have been handed down prison sentences by the Suva High Court.
Josaia Usumaki has been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 16 years.
He was convicted for aggravated robbery.
Judge Justice Salesi Temo ordered that his sentence be concurrent with his present sentence.
Kunal Prasad who is also convicted for aggravated robbery has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 11 years.
Solomoni Qurai and Tevita Sugu who have been convicted for receiving stolen property have been sentenced to four years imprisonment.
Epeli Qaraniqio has been convicted for receiving stolen property and has been sentenced to two years and eight months imprisonment.
The sixth accused Deshwar Dutt who is also convicted for receiving stolen property has been sentenced to one year six months imprisonment.
The court heard that on the 19th of September, 2012, Sugu and others stormed into the BSP branch in Samabula and got away with $70,000 in local and foreign currency.
The court earlier heard that two out of the three accused had allegedly escaped from Naboro prison two days before the robbery.
While sentencing the escaped prisoners, Justice Temo highlighted that by escaping from prison, they have shown utter-disregard to the rule of law.
The Judge did not consider any mitigating factors of the escaped prisoners.
