Gabriel Einstein, accused of stealing €4m in armed raid on security van, claims to have given some of it to poor people

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A former policeman who staged Austria's biggest robbery has been billed as a modern-day Robin Hood after telling police he stole the cash to give to the poor.

Gabriel Einstein, 49, said he had already deposited bundles of cash in the mailboxes of poor Austrians and he intended to use the rest of the €4m (£3.3m) that he stole last month for a charity project in Africa.

"He wanted to send the money to Africa in a container full of cheap electronic items. He was keeping it in the attic until he got organised," said his lawyer, Werner Tomanek.

Einstein is accused of holding up a Loomis security van at gunpoint in Vienna just before Christmas last year, along with an accomplice, Tamara Svoboda.

The pair were arrested after footage from a bank's CCTV camera was analysed and employees at Loomis identified Svoboda, a former Loomis employee.

When police searched Einstein's home, they found boxes of cash containing €4m stashed in the attic.

Einstein was forced to give up his job as a policeman after injury. He set up his own private security business, through which he went on assignment to Africa.

According to his wife, Anni, on returning to Austria he set about getting involved in charitable projects.

"When he was in Africa he saw the starving children and this really affected him," she said. "Since then he was never the same. He was always planning charitable projects and was talking about dividing up wealth around the world."