In 1975, Emori Toloi, along with three others executed Fiji’s first ever bank robbery. The daring daylight heist carried out in the heart of Suva City captured the imagination of the populace and gripped the attention of the nation for several weeks.
Mr Toloi, one of the masterminds behind the robbery, was 24 years old at the time.
Today, the 69-year-old father of six is a respected country manager of a multimillion dollar iron-ore extraction company.
The Ba resident said there was only one thing he hoped to achieve in sharing his exploits, that those who had done time could look at his story as a form of encouragement.
He also said in sharing his story, he hoped to touch the hearts of those who were planning to make the “wrong choice” to make better decisions.
“If I could turn my life around then anyone can,” he said. Mr Toloi said today, he was a reformed man, leading a life that many could only dream of.
But his journey had been fi lled with pain and heartache from as far back as he could remember. “I would say my upbringing was not an easy one,” Mr Toloi said.
“My father was a teacher and he raised us alone while my mother was away overseas. So it could not have been easy for him.
“He had his work and then he had to come home and take care of us. He did everything from the cooking to the cleaning. “So he did what he could, but at the same time he was a very hard man. He was a disciplinarian and very tough on us. “I believe that was probably where I began developing this anti-authority and rebellious way of thinking.
“It started from home because of the way we were treated.” Raised on Vanua Levu, Mr Toloi said it did not take long for him to rebel against those he felt were trying to control his life.
“By the time I turned 12, the street life was very attractive to me.
“I did everything a young boy did in trying to make ends meet and found myself in a lot of trouble.
“Looking back, I can see that was not a good way to live my life, especially at a very young age.”
He was placed into boarding school in an institution where discipline was enforced as a core principle and found the environment stifl ing. “I just felt out of place.
“When I came back home, I still felt like I was a poster child for the anti-establishment movement. I looked at everyone who was in authority as being like ‘it’s them versus us’. “Because of that attitude, I blamed my parents for the way I was brought up and how I faced life as a young boy, but I’m glad that I’ve changed and I took on a different perspective. “No parent will ever tell his son or daughter to go and do bad things.
“That was my own bad choices and the wrong company that I followed.”
Mr Toloi said the “bad choices” led to his introduction to crime. “After I had left school and because of that kind of attitude that I had, it did not take long for me to associate myself with the wrong kind of crowd. “I remember I celebrated my 21st birthday in prison so that was how my life was at a very young age.” He said on his third spell in prison, a visit from an old ‘friend’ saw the birth of a grand plan to stage Fiji’s fi rst ever bank robbery.
“I was ‘inside’ when this bank robbery was actually planned. It was planned by one of the guys that actually knew me and that I went to school with. “He wanted me to be part of this robbery. I guess he felt comfortable to have me as part of the gang that would do this. “So he met me on the very day I came out. This was around 1975. He took me to his home where he had a bottle of whisky and told me about his plan to rob a bank.” He said just like him, his old ‘friend’ was no stranger to crime. “He also had spent time in prison and whenever we were out of prison we were always together with other former prisoners.
“We were like a gang and we did everything together.” Mr Toloi said after they concocted their plan on his first night out of prison, the pair joined other gang members as they began to meticulously strategise the heist. “We rented a double storey building and the payment of the rent and everything — from food to our drinks — it came from stealing and other means because of all those kind of people in the gang. “Over the next two weeks we started to really get into the fi ner details of how we were going to pull it off. “The robbery was supposed to be done at a very a congested area in the heart of Suva City so we had to really do our groundwork well.
“We went over the plan every day, making sure that we alternated between us.
“There used to be an ANZ Bank coming down from the New Lilac Theatre along Waimanu Rd.
“We planned to do it at a very busy time of the day so we decided on 3 o’clock.
That was the time when they also came out with the money.”
He said in early March of that year they scoped out the area and were convinced that the bank was the perfect target for the would-be robbers. “We observed that they had a routine.
“There would be clerks with each holding a money bag and there would be a waiting taxi outside.
“They had a security guard. The first clerk would come out with his bag and enter the taxi and then close the door.
“The second person would then come out after the first one was inside the taxi and the door of the car was closed. “Once they were both in the car, they would move off.
“They did that same routine almost every day.”
Tomorrow part 2: Mr Toloi recalls the day of the robbery, how a bank routine was disrupted by two masked men and how the nation reeled from news of its first ever bank robbery.
