Police Life: The Experts podcast - Season 2 Episode 2: Digging into a gold heist transcript

Detectives from the Armed Crime Squad embark on an investigation full of twists and turns as they track down those responsible for one of the biggest gold and cash robberies in Victoria's history.

Listen to this episode and other episodes of Victoria Police's official podcast, Police Life: The Experts.

Transcript of Police Life: The Experts podcast, Season 2 Episode 2: Digging into a gold heist

Voiceover: It's about 9.30am on a quiet Monday in Melbourne's CBD in April 2020. Office workers are easing into the start of a new week. A CCTV camera on Collins Street swings around to focus on a bank. Staff from the bank have called Triple Zero (000) because of a disturbance inside.

[Sound of police sirens and car doors being closed]

Voiceover: Two police officers arrive and the issue is soon resolved. But the footage captured by that camera will end up being crucial.

[Upbeat music begins to play]

Because, just a few doors down, in a non-descript office suite, the third largest armed robbery in the history of Victoria is quietly taking place.

$3.2 million in gold and cash has been stolen at gunpoint from a gold trading business. All without a shot being fired or a voice being raised.

Detective Sergeant Mark Walsh: When we first arrived to a scene first thing we do is we want to know what the witnesses saw. So, we have a detective that will go and do a handover with the initial responding members and identify who the witnesses are and obtain an account about what they see and what they saw.

So, my name is Mark Walsh. I'm a detective sergeant at Armed Crime Squad. At the time of this job, I was a detective acting sergeant.

We don't know a lot about it until we get a briefing about what's occurred and what we know at that time, which is that there's a lone staff member was at the premises, a male that's armed with a firearm has entered dressed as a delivery driver, has purported to be providing delivery and has been able to grant access. From there he's then tied up a staff member and taken a quantity of cash and gold from the premises.

We had to actually wait for a stocktake to be done. But we knew that it was in excess of $3 million in cash and gold.

That's extraordinary. For someone to be able to do that in the way that it was described to us, and walk out in the middle of day, at 9.30 in the morning on a Monday, walk in, whether they had a firearm or not, but walk out with over $3 million of cash and gold was, yeah, it's certainly all of us were just so surprised that could happen.

[Tense music begins to play]

Voiceover: Daniel Ede was the lone staff member working at the Melbourne Gold Company that morning. After he was freed from being tied up, he gave his account to detectives.

Daniel explained the offender was a man, with a slightly heavy build, wearing a fluorescent orange top, dark pants, a wide-brimmed hat and a surgical mask over his face.

The full armed hold-up was captured on the business's CCTV cameras. The offender holds a handgun throughout the incident and pushes a trolley from safe to safe. He forces Daniel to gather up the gold and cash and throw it into his trolley.

He then ties up Daniel's hands and feet and leaves. The whole robbery is over in less than six minutes. The Armed Crime Squad carefully analyses the CCTV footage, watching the offender's every move.

Acting Inspector Simon Pengelly: When I viewed the CCTV, we had briefings during the day to get the staff all across what occurred. I did notice that the firearm used by the offender - it didn't have a magazine within the firearm. So, the firearm was produced, but it was basically like it was unloaded. So, that was just from one of the first things that I realised in the CCTV.

My name's Simon Pengelly. I'm an acting inspector currently attached to the Criminal Proceeds Squad. At the time, I was, detective senior sergeant attached to Armed Crime Squad.

It's important in Armed Crime to be resilient. You have a lot of victims that are scared to talk to police. You have offenders that are prepared, balaclava'd, aware of DNA precautions. Very different to, say, a homicide where it's a crime of passion. You've got to have teams that are tenacious and are willing to investigate, right to the nth degree, to chase these armed violent offenders down.

Det Sgt Walsh: So, Armed Crime focuses on what we call category one offences. So, that's your non-fatal shootings where someone is shot and they haven't died. Armed robberies on gaming venues, post offices, and other government institutions, as well as kidnappings where the hostage remains outstanding. As well, we have aggravated burglaries and home invasions where shots are fired.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: The Armed Crime detectives began thinking about who could have carried out this massive gold heist. Given how brazen it was, their minds turned to a list of likely offenders. But they needed to act fast, knowing that the cash and gold could be laundered quickly.

A/Insp Pengelly: It could be lost within the criminal network. So, it could be transferred cash. It can be transferred into cryptocurrency now quite easily. Gold and cash can be hidden in places that you would never, ever find, even if you go to search warrants.

Det Sgt Walsh: We're really limited in what we had. Yeah we have a description of a person, and they walk in and walk out with a gun and a trolley, but that was it. And, as luck would have it, the first clue we had was police were actually called, just prior to this armed robbery occurring to the HSBC Bank just down the road from it. And so, as part of in the Melbourne CBD, when there's jobs that come through Triple Zero (000), the Safe City cameras will turn their cameras to the location.

And where the police were standing was actually where the offending vehicle was parked. So, what it captures is him attending, parking the vehicle and then coming back to it. And now the police are distracted, obviously, with the job that they're doing at HSBC. But I could only imagine the kind of surprise that the offender would have when he walked out and he saw a police car parked three spaces down and the police standing on the street. But obviously he remained calm and he walked to the car and put the cash and gold in there and then just drove calmly away.

The first clue was looking at the type of car.

So, for this, we looked at it and it was a completely stock standard Holden Colorado. It had no tub liner, basic wheels, and I remember looking at it and going, "This is either going to be a hire car or it's going to be a fleet car". And as we followed it through the city, some of the angles were close enough you could see there was little white stickers in the front corner and in the back passenger door.

Now, my experience working previously at Fawkner, and around this area was that a lot of cars that are hire cars that return to the airport, they scan in and scan out.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: It was a miniscule clue. Two tiny barcode stickers. But, with the number plates on the getaway car coming up as having been stolen, Mark backed his intuition and experience. He started contacting hire car companies in the Camberwell area, where the number plates - which had been the registration 1PS 5GL - were stolen.

Det Sgt Walsh: We know that offenders usually like to operate in an area that they're comfortable with, so we had contacted all the hire companies and they all confirmed that they didn't have Holden Colorados in stock. But I wasn't convinced that no hire companies had those cars. So, I said to the two detectives I was working with, I'm like, "Just humour me, and let's just go around to some of the local hire companies and see if there's a car there".

And as luck would have it, the first place we go into is Budget rentals in Camberwell and I remember driving into the driveway and sitting here right in front of me on the apron of the address was this Holden Colorado. And it looked exactly the same as the one we're looking for. And so, I contacted back to the office, I'm like, "We need to do a double check and get on to Budget and any of the other rental companies and double check how many of these Holden Colorados exist".

Because it was perfect, it had the barcodes in the window, there was a red diesel sticker above the petrol cap. And I'm like, I'm convinced it's going to be this, but it's going to be a Budget rental car and they made those inquiries and they got back to us and they said, "If you think it's going to be one of our cars, it has to be this one, because the other three that we've got have all got mining stickers all over them".

So, I was pretty confident then. The number plates are stolen 500 metres or a kilometre away from here. This car, when we do the initial check on it, we find out that it's hired out the day before, and it's returned the day of the armed robbery occurring. So, I think that's where we're sort of like, "Okay, we've got a clue".

A/Insp Pengelly: And that's something that's probably a credit to Armed Crime members where they do chase that rabbit down every hole. They followed where the evidence takes them until it takes them nowhere where it's either been exonerated or it leads to another lead.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Det Sgt Walsh: We did feel like we found a needle in a haystack only because if we hadn't have identified that it was a hire car, we were really stuck with evidence in identifying the vehicle. It wasn't stolen and where the plates were stolen from, there was no CCTV footage. So, it was going to be a really tough investigation if we hadn't got this, and particularly because the pressure on us with the cash and gold and how easy it is to disappear. It was such a critical thing as part of the investigation.

The person that hired it, we looked at the receipt and we saw that it was hired the day before, and it was returned at 1pm the following day. We also looked at how many kilometres it had travelled, and it only travelled 59km.

That was suspicious in itself as well, in terms of the use of the vehicle. And we worked to calculate it out that it had to be someone locally to this area to travel into the city and back. It was then about, okay, how is this person involved?

When we entered the Budget and obtained the hirer details, we identified it was hired by an Asian female. That person had no involvements with police at all before. And so that created a whole heap of new avenues of inquiry for us, because we knew that the offender wasn't an Asian female. And we didn't know whether it was just a fraudulent identification used or whether that person was actually connected.

A/Insp Pengelly: So that's when we decided to put them under surveillance. The Asian female was married to a male. From our social media pictures of the male, that male was a lot skinnier than the person who committed the armed robbery. But I was confident in what Mark had told me, so I reported up to management, "Look, we need to put those people under immediate surveillance".

Voiceover: The man was identified as 48-year-old Hawthorn man Karl Kachami.

[Sounds of bustling Collins Street]

When the Armed Crime Squad looked into his background, he hardly seemed the kind a man expected pull off one of the biggest armed robberies in the state's history.

He had no previous involvement with police, he was a university lecturer specialising in finance, he owned an antique store and two multi-million dollar homes in Hawthorn and Fitzroy.

Det Sgt Walsh: I was expecting if we were to develop any suspects, it'd be old school bank armed robbers, someone with some significant history, to be able to show that they knew what they were doing and they had the skill and aptitude to actually go in there and do that kind of thing.

Given that this was a male armed with a firearm, we looked at someone that was maybe willing to be able to use a firearm, someone that was going to be prepared for confrontation as well as someone that may have experience in cash and gold. And Karl didn't fit any of those categories.

He definitely did not fit any of the profiles that we came up with for someone that's willing to do that.

Voiceover: So, it was a big call for Simon to bring in the surveillance operatives and invest their efforts in such an unlikely suspect. But it's two days now since the armed robbery, the clock is ticking ever louder, and they have to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

[Sound of vehicles driving past. Builds to sounds of police sirens, loud footsteps, and clinking metal]

In their initial reports, the police following Kachami said he was doing nothing suspicious, just performing routine activities.

But then at about 11am, he drops something in a streetside rubbish bin in Fitzroy. Armed crime detectives quickly search through the bin and find two pieces of cut-up number plates. The two pieces, when joined together, feature the number one, matching the same position on the stolen plates used by the armed robber - 1PS 5GL.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: Then a further report comes in from the surveillance operatives.

A/Insp Pengelly: So, what occurred then, we're doing this briefing, one of the other sergeants, Sean O'Connell, he comes into the briefing. He's monitoring, the surveillance as it's going, and he says, "He's going in and out from his car into this residence in Fitzroy, and he's carrying this PVC piping in and out from the car, and he's taking items from the boot of the car into that terrace house in Fitzroy". Probably then at that stage, I thought that he's secreting parts of that gold or money from that vehicle.

Voiceover: Simon immediately goes to his boss, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas, and tells him he wants to arrest Karl Kachami. It's a high-pressure decision and he has to get it right.

A/Insp Pengelly: I spoke to Dean, and Deano is very experienced, and he's grilling me, and I stood my ground and I said, "Look boss, I think that this is who the person is that's committed this armed robbery".

But what's definitely on the line is that you're targeting the wrong person and then the other offenders are getting away.

Det Sgt Walsh: When the investigators got out there and picked up the piece of number plate that was probably the first confirmation for me that he was involved.

Although I didn't necessarily believe that he was involved in the armed robbery itself because I was like, he doesn't fit the picture. He's not an armed robber, he's not someone that's in organised crime. But I did think that he was going to be involved somewhat.

So, when the decision was made to arrest him, I remember we arrested him in a car park of a Dan Murphy's and I remembered how shocked he looked when I walked up to him and told him he was under arrest in relation to an armed robbery.

And right from the start he was completely in denial. And he was convincing. I remember putting him into the police car and straight away he's like, "I want to help you, I really do. I don't understand what's happening. Or I don't know what's happened, but I want to help you. But I don't know anything about what you're talking about".

Voiceover: Kachami was searched and in his pocket were two more pieces of a number plate. This time it was two letter s's, both in the same position as on the stolen plates. Despite the discovery, Mark was still unsure that Kachami was the gunman.

Det Sgt Walsh: So, I had a conversation with Simon after we initially arrested him, before we were driving him back, and I was just relaying what I'd spoken to Karl about and his demeanour. And I was still unsure about him actually being involved because of how calm he was and how collected he was about it, and how shocked he appeared to be arrested for it.

Voiceover: And now it was Simon's turn to trust his gut and his experience. He told Mark and his fellow detectives to push on and consider Kachami as their prime suspect.

Kachami did not look like the old social media photos the armed crime squad had. He was heavier and his body shape now resembled that of the gunman.

He gave investigators a detailed account of his movements on the day of and after the armed robbery. He told Mark that he hired the Holden Colorado to move antique furniture.

Det Sgt Walsh: So, he told me everything that he did in the two days to account for it.

But that probably gave me a little bit of an inkling that he sort of knew a lot more because of how much he was able to account for every sort of hour of the day. It was almost like a preamble that he'd practised. But he stuck to it.

He said, "This is what I did. I know that you think that I might be involved, but there's been a mistake, and I want to help you". And that was the other thing he did. He continually pressed on about wanting to help our investigation and wanting to help us identify who was involved.

It's suspicious because once you've done enough interviews with people, you know the difference between some people that are being evasive or avoiding questions, people that are actually being honest and telling you stuff, and then there's people that go completely the other way, where they over-talk and it seems rehearsed. And so that's what it was with Karl. It seemed like it was a bit rehearsed with him. But having said that, we didn't have a lot to go off to challenge him, apart from saying to him that, "We believe that this vehicle was used in the armed robbery".

I remember suspending the interview and Sarah Inglese, who was the detective that corroborated the interview. I remember talking to her about it and going, "What have we got to put to him? We've got some number plates to put to him and we've got the that he's had the car", but I'm like, "There's nothing that we can put to him at this point in relation to the armed robbery itself. We've got nothing to contradict his version".

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: That was about to completely change. While Mark and Sarah were questioning Kachami, Simon and another team from the Armed Crime Squad were searching his home.

A/Insp Pengelly: So, went to the Hawthorn residence. Beautiful house, amazing looking house.

You walk in the front door of the premises on the right-hand side, was a very large sort of ballroom loungeroom, of that address. There was an antique chest of drawers or cabinet.

We find the gun, the handgun. And we find up to a kilo in gold nuggets, which is stolen from Melbourne Gold Company.

There was pieces of the number plate that were also found within that location.

Voiceover: The letters on these pieces of the number plates were P and L. Rounding out the set from the stolen plates - 1PS 5GL.

Detectives often say their investigations are like putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. But this time, with the number plates, they were literally putting the pieces together.

Det Sgt Walsh: It definitely felt like a treasure hunt and almost to a point where when we first got the first couple of pieces of number plate. And then to the next piece and the next piece. It definitely felt like that. It felt like it was a bit of a treasure hunt.

That's when the whole thing changed for us as an interview team. So, we had a lot more to go on and we could go back into the interview room a lot more confident about how we were going to challenge any other story that Karl put up.

Again, still, though, we didn't we didn't know where the cash was, we didn't know where the gold was. And in order to get him to keep talking to us, we had to approach it in a way that was going to be able to keep him talking. Often interview s are dictated to how the suspect is talking to us and what tactics that they're using. So, if you go too hard they close down, they say "No comment". If you listen to what they say, then hopefully you can tie them down to a story that you can challenge later.

Voiceover: Kachami had answers to their questions about the number plates, the hire car and even the gold.

Det Sgt Walsh: And then we're like, "Okay, explain how this gun is in your drawer in your study". And that's when his whole demeanour changed. And we could sense the change in dynamics.

But he's a smart guy. So instantly he goes into a story that accounts for the firearm. And he says that he was visited by a couple of people. All he's done was hire the vehicle, and he was paid in gold pieces and asked to hang on to the firearm.

It's a smart version to create because it distances yourself from the armed robbery and it corroborates what we have on him.

[Tense music begins to play]

Voiceover: While Mark and Sarah continued with the interview, police were also searching Kachami's Fitzroy property.

In the attic, they made another game-changing discovery. Two PVC pipes were found, and in them, was almost $350,000 in cash. That left a further $350,000 in cash and most of the more than $2.5 million in gold still unaccounted for.

Mark and Sarah were now certain that Kachami was the actual gunman. So now they have to try to convince Kachami that it's better for him to offer up the rest of the stolen loot than to go into prison with it still out there attached to his name.

Det Sgt Walsh: We still spent a fair amount of time talking to Karl and developing a pretty good relationship with him. We just kept honing on the point that there's cash and gold that are outstanding and that if we don't get it back, that it's going to look really bad for you come sentencing in relation to what you've admitted to so far.

And if you end up in custody, there's people in jail that are going to know that you've got over $ 3 million of cash and gold as well.

So, we just honed-in on that a lot and just built that pressure on him. And the fact that he was a smart guy, he started to see what the picture was, but he also developed a story in his head that he thought that he could get out of it. So, he comes back to us, and he says, "I might be able to help you get the gold back. When they returned the firearm to me, and paid me the gold, they showed me a picture of where it was buried. I've recognised it and it's on a property that belongs to my parents, and I think that I can take you there. I'm not sure if it's still there", but he goes, "I'm sure that's where they put it".

A/Insp Pengelly: So, by this time it was quite late at night. So, we'd started probably at about 6am that day, but worked multiple 12-hour days the two days prior. So, myself and some of the team, I decided, well look, it's time to go home. And then I was on my way home, and then, Mark goes, "You better turn around".

Det Sgt Walsh: I remember calling Simon and saying, "Karl's willing to take us and show us where the gold is". And I remember Simon as keen as going, "Yep, yep, I'll grab a shovel from home and we'll come back". And the pressure on me now was we had all these people working day shift, and then they all had to come back to work. And we were going to go dig for gold.

A/Insp Pengelly: I was definitely keen because I thought we're on the money now, literally, and let's get out there.

Det Sgt Walsh: The pressure was on me because I knew all these people were coming back to work. It required us to keep buying into his story to keep him onside, so even to the point when we started driving out of the police station, he kept changing his mind on whether he's going to help us or not.

And I remember looking back and seeing two other police cars following us, full of people and like I've dragged all these people back from home. I'm like, "Karl, you're not doing this to me. And we're getting this gold back". So initially he told us that he thought it was in Mornington, but then when he brought up the map and showed us it was in this town called Dollar, and we saw that it was 2.5 hours drive from here. We all just looked at each other like, you've got to be kidding me.

A/Insp Pengelly: We left the office, and we headed out to a little town called Dollar, where there's more wombats than people.

Det Sgt Walsh: It was 2.5 hours of us sitting in the car with Karl and continuing the rapport, because we knew at any time if he just said, "I'm not going to help you anymore", we'd never have found it.

It was a lot of small talk for two hours. But also, at 11 o'clock at night it's really hard to do that.

[Sounds of car driving]

Voiceover: At 2am on April 30, less than 65 hours since the gold heist happened, Kachami leads seven investigators from the Armed Crime Squad to a farm in the tiny community of Dollar in South Gippsland.

[Nature sounds begin to play indicating a person is outside]

Det Sgt Walsh: Pitch black. There's no street lighting. There's nothing. It's the middle of farmland. We could use our cars to put some kind of headlights down into the paddocks, but you still couldn't hardly see anything. And as detectives, we never carry torches either. So, we're, we're basically using mobile phone lights, and Karl is directing us, and he's still maintaining this facade that he's only going off a picture. So, we're like, "Karl, okay, we just need you to think about what you saw in that picture and just walk us through where this is".

[Sound of loud footsteps]

And even to the point where we walk down to the point where he shows us where it's meant to be under this big log, we're all standing around looking at each other going, "There's no way that you could tell that that's where it was from a picture".

We didn't confront Karl about it yet because we were like, "Nup, we want to keep you onside". So, we just listened to him and he kept talking about how that this is where he feels like it's going to be. And sure enough, there was a freshly dug site underneath a big tree log.

Voiceover: Although he was the only one who brought the shovel, Simon was also the only one still wearing a suit.

A/Insp Pengelly: There was no way that I was going to get my suit dirty. So, I let Mark do all the heavy hitting.

Det Sgt Walsh So I remember when we rolled over the log, and I knew we were going to be in for a tough time because Karl said that it looked like it had been dug with the excavator, and, I'm like, "Oh, this is going to be hard work". And so, with one shovel, we just started.

[Sound of shovel digging]

And we took turns, every sort of 10 minutes we swapped out with someone else. And we just jumped in the trench and - just covered in mud. I was wearing a pair of Converse shoes and some normal pants, so I wasn't dressed at all for digging. None of us were. And it took about an hour and a half to dig out. And I remember getting to the point where we, like the shovel was no longer working, and we were having to use our hands to pull the dirt up and breaking it down with the crowbar and pulling the dirt. And the moment that we hit like a plastic tub [Sound of digging stopping] I felt vindicated that I hadn't dragged all these people out for nothing. And that there was at least going to be something here.

Here we are in the middle of the bush, and we might have achieved something, just through our ability to work with Karl.

[Sound of phone ringing]

A/Insp Pengelly: It was during this time too that Dean Thomas rings me, it's about 3am, he can't sleep. And I said, "Boss, can't talk, mate, we're digging for gold".

Det Sgt Walsh: If you had told me at the start of my career that at one point in time I'm going to be in the middle of a forest at 2am in the morning, in the trenches, covered in mud, using one shovel and a crowbar to try and dig out $3 million worth of cash and gold, I would have told you, you were crazy. I was like, there's no way that would ever happen. Happens in movies, surely it doesn't happen in real life.

So, brushing off the dirt and looking at it and we had to use the crowbar to lift it up and it felt heavy. It felt really heavy. And I was actually expecting, you know, like in the movies, you open up a casket and, like, there's just glowing gold. It was kind of a letdown because it wasn't. It was all bagged up and it was all in clear plastic bags and had no idea how much, how much was there or what was in it.

So, once we had the gold, the pressure was off us to keep maintaining that rapport with Karl as much.

We offered him an opportunity to provide any further information that would assist him but at that point he was still maintaining that story, that he had only seen a photo and he'd only became aware of it being buried there because of that photo.

He continued that same story, that it was all just him assisting.

So, I think he thought that he'd provided enough assistance to us. So, we knew that the investigation was far from over, from just getting that. We still needed more in terms of building a case around Karl because of his story that he provided. And a lot of our time is spent in terms of contradicting what version of events that an accused has provided. So, our work wasn't done, but a big part of it was definitely a relief for us and that we'd got some of that property back.

Voiceover: A Bunnings receipt found at Kachami's Hawthorn house would show the purchase of several items used in the armed robbery including the trolley, clothing and safety goggles. CCTV footage from that Bunnings would clearly show Kachami buying all the items himself.

The team is now in no doubt that it was Karl Kachami who walked into Melbourne Gold Company with the gun and forced the staff member Daniel Ede to hand over the gold and cash.

But they now have other questions that beg an answer.

Det Sgt Walsh: I remember as a team like me, Sarah, Simon, we all discussed about Karl, and we're like, there's no way that Karl's done this by himself.

There's no way that this person who's a university lecturer, who is pretty successful in buying property, there's no way that he's come up with this idea himself and just gone into a completely hidden place with a firearm, knowing and believing that he was going to get that much money.

The next day, we go back out to the farm and organise a line search with the SES. The media come out because they get the tip off that we're out there and there's a story that breaks that Karl's been arrested in relation to this and so it goes on the nightly news.

Audio of Channel Nine news report: SES crews and police scoured this rural property in Gippsland near the aptly-named community of Dollar, where gold bullion, jewellery and cash were discovered, the alleged proceeds of a massive heist.

The dealer was robbed on Monday morning. Karl Kachami from Hawthorn has been accused of staging the hold-up. Police allege the 48-year-old wore a surgical mask and used a Glock pistol to threaten an employee.

Voiceover: The news report catches the attention of locals.

Det Sgt Walsh: We do a door knock because Inspector Thomas goes, "It's in the country, everyone sees everything. So, just speak to them and see if they saw anything". And so we speak to a neighbour who says, "I saw Karl's car there the night of the armed robbery, and he was lighting a fire".

So, we go and find that patch and we see some more pieces of evidence had been burned. But he also says, "After you guys have been yesterday", so after we did the line search, he says that, "I saw someone else turn up", and he goes "They were driving a white ute. And he got out, walked down towards where you guys were, a minute later walked back, got in the car and took off".

So, we say to him "Have you got a description of the vehicle or what?" and he goes, "Yeah, it was a Holden. I've actually got a piece of paper where I've written down the registration".

So, we do a registration check on that and it comes up to a male in Springvale. No recorded involvements or anything like that. So, we're like, "Oh, we don't know who that is". But coincidently enough, that night the new story goes with us doing the line search and a local newsagent sees it and says, "I was out the front of my shop yesterday and there was a guy that was standing outside and he had a Melways".

And the newsagent walked up to him and says, "You look a bit lost". And he says, "Yeah, I'm looking for directions to Dollar".

So, she helps him on her Google Maps to find it. And she asks him what's he doing in Dollar because it's a pretty small town and everyone knows everyone. And he goes, "I'm going to do some digging around". And she describes it as a person driving a white ute.

We were like, "Bang. We need to go out there and get some footage, hopefully of who that person was".

[Suspenseful music starts playing]

Voiceover: This man clearly knew where the gold was buried and raced down there after learning that Kachami had been arrested. It must be an accomplice.

Mark and the team review the CCTV footage from the newsagency and from a nearby service station where the white ute filled up petrol on the same day.

The investigation takes a turn no one saw coming.

[Music abruptly stops with a boom and thump]

[Suspenseful music starts playing]

The man driving the ute is Daniel Ede. The lone staff member at Melbourne Gold Company at the time of the armed robbery.

It's confirmed. Karl Kachami didn't work alone. The gold heist was an inside job, with Ede part of it from the beginning.

It's a stunning development. And the investigators now go back to the CCTV footage of the armed robbery with fresh eyes.

Det Sgt Walsh: As an investigator, when I was watching the CCTV footage, you're always watching the offender to see what moves they're making, the clothing to see if you can identify the clothing that they're wearing, anything telltale sign about identifying something that can link them back.

And that's where tunnel vision comes in sometimes where you don't look at the overall picture. But I'd watched that CCTV footage multiple times and hadn't really focused on Daniel and what Daniel was doing. Because we were always of the view that he wasn't involved. But when we got that concrete evidence that he was involved, and when you change your view and your mindset, we were able to see that there were some clear signs that he was involved.

That's when we saw him walk into the first safe and really complicitly hand over cash. But also, wide-eye stare at Karl at one point when Karl puts the firearm away and motions with his hand to pull it back out.

Then it's actually Karl that pushes the trolley and goes to the next room, and Daniel followed. And then Daniel starts opening safes up, starts emptying the cash and gold into the trolley. And Karl misses, but Daniel motions with his head points to another safe, which had $6 million in it. And he missed it.

A/Insp Pengelly: So Daniel was placed under surveillance straight away. Whilst we had him under surveillance, look I had an interaction with the owner of the store who is likely to be still outstanding $350-odd thousand. The owner still didn't believe it - that Daniel was involved. He was friends with Daniel.

Voiceover: The owner phones Daniel Ede and tells him the police are interested in him.

A/Insp Pengelly: So he made that call, and then, lo and behold, whilst he's under surveillance, after that call, he goes down the Nepean Highway and he stands out the front of a Melbourne Gold Company billboard and stares at it for about 10 minutes, trying to work out what his next plan of action was. And then from there, well what does he do?

[Sound of waves starts playing]

He goes across the road out to the ocean. And looks like, "Far out", we're thinking he's going to make a swim for this, to get away with it. But look, I think he just puts his feet in the water, and then he comes back.

[Sound of police sirens start playing and builds into suspenseful music]

Voiceover: The Armed Crime Squad then swooped in to arrest Ede.

Det Sgt Walsh: Daniel remained very staunch, and he wasn't like Karl at all. Like, completely denied being involved in the face of it, despite the evidence that we had against him. Just maintained "No comment" interviews and maintained that throughout the whole prosecution.

From speaking to the investigators that interviewed him, it was very much different to Karl in terms of I think he was more arrogant about getting caught. He believed that he was never going to get caught for it. And, the fact that Karl had been caught, but he hadn't been arrested immediately kind of emboldened him, that he thought he was going to get away with it.

Voiceover: But the evidence was overwhelming and both Ede and Kachami pleaded guilty to the armed robbery. Ede was sent to prison for seven-and-a-half years, with a minimum of five years and three months. Kachami was imprisoned for four years, with a minimum of two.

It was discovered that Ede and Kachami had known each other for eight years and that Kachami had been a previous customer of Ede's.

Det Sgt Walsh: I think Daniel's motivations were that he worked in a place and he was exposed to significant amounts of cash and gold daily. And he was aware that there was a large cash delivery getting done Monday and he saw it as an opportunity. And I think he just exploited Karl, knowing Karl's position.

It was clear that this wasn't going to be Karl's idea and he would never have done this if he didn't have the information that he did.

It was evident that this decision was made by him because of the financial strain he was under. He had he lost all these tenants out of his Fitzroy address because of COVID. He was well behind in his mortgage payments in Hawthorn and his antiques store was closing down.

De Sgt Walsh: This job painted that picture for us about what we imagined a true detective would be like, in that, we're out in the field, we're chasing down clues and then clues are bringing on more things.

And it was a puzzle that we were trying to solve. And for every bit of good work we did, we got a new piece and a new bit of information, which helped us drive forward.

This is my most satisfying job that I did. Because of the pressure, also because of the team we got to work with. We were a really close investigation team and we had a lot of really good results, but nothing this quick, nothing this high pressure. And my favourite part about this whole investigation was the fact that Karl thought he was going to pick the most inconspicuous vehicle. When, in turn, the car that he chose was actually only one of three in the country. And a little barcode is what initially led us to identifying and following the bouncing ball to be able to get the result we did.

A/Insp Pengelly: Amazing in the fact that you turn up in the middle of a town called Dollar at 3am and gun detectives are all digging hard at and retrieving gold.

Extremely proud. Proud of the fact that we had multiple people from different work groups, not only just at State Anti-Gangs, being Armed Crime, Echo, Vehicles and Illicit Firearms Squad, but had people out in the regions who were doing crime scene guards in the middle of the night, dropping what they needed to do. The fact that we had great support from management. We had the surveillance team that worked around the clock for us as well. It was just an amazing team effort that without one of those parts not working together, the job could fall over. It's just an amazing achievement that I'm very, very proud of.

Voiceover: But not all the cash stolen in the heist could be recovered. There remains about $330,000 still outstanding.

Det Sgt Walsh: I think Daniel's the only one that knows where that is and whether that's buried somewhere else in the middle of Victoria or whether it's hidden away somewhere.

A/Insp Pengelly: If there is anyone that does know, the distance of time doesn't make a difference. It's now four years on. We will still - that is one good thing about Armed Crime - we will always investigate whenever we get new information down. So please, if anyone does know where this money's hidden by Daniel Ede, then please, ring up Crime Stoppers. You can do it anonymously if you wish, and then we will investigate it.

Voiceover: And Simon will have his shovel ready to start digging again.

Voiceover: You can make a report to Crime Stoppers by phoning 1800 333 000 or online at crimestoppersvic.com.au

Voiceover: Police Life: The Experts is a Victoria Police production.

Your host is Belinda Batty.

It was written by Jesse Wray-McCann.

It was produced by Jesse Wray-McCann and Adam Shand.

The senior producer was Ros Jaguar.

Audio production and original music by Mat Dwyer.

Theme song by Veaceslav Draganov.

Executive produced by Beck Angel.

This podcast was created by the Media, Communications and Engagement Department at Victoria Police.

Voiceover: To learn more about the work of Victoria Police, go to police.vic.gov.au.