Royal Bank accuses two former Vancouver employees of stealing over $200,000

Two former employees of a Vancouver Royal Bank branch are being accused of stealing over $200,000 from the bank. Jeffery Ho Nam Lau and Maradona Hoang Vu assisted alleged accomplice, Hau Ngoc Nguyen, in taking $180,000 CAD and $20,000 USD from a vault.

According to the statement made by Royal Bank, the alleged robberies took place on December 30, 2013 and January 31, 2014.

Both Lau and Vu were employees of the branch during those periods. They also lived as roommates.

The pair allegedly copied a key to the vault and then exchanged vault combinations. They then assisted Nguyen to set up a safety deposit box in the bank, which was located very close to the vault.

On January 31, the bank claims that Nguyen walked into the bank disguised. Lau then led Nguyen to the vault area, where they pretended to access the safety deposit box, but instead stole the money from the vault.

Royal Bank realized that Lau and Vu were responsible for the robberies and they were both fired in March after finding $11,000 in a safety deposit box belonging to Nguyen at another bank.

In personal defense documents filed to the court, Nguyen says he had no outside relationship with Lau and Vu besides being a customer at the branch.

Lau says that he did not copy the vault key because he never had the opportunity to do so. He also claimed that other employees knew the vault combinations.

Vu has not made any response to the allegations and no charges have been laid by the Vancouver Police Department at this time.

Feature Image: Royal Bank Canada via Shutterstock