Stander: Bank Robber [first edition]

The story of the Stander Gang of bank robbers, led by former police captain, Andre Stander, and the problems they caused during 1983 and 1984. Two were finally shot dead by police, one in Johannesburg and Stander himself in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The survivor was arrested and gaoled in the UK. In 1983, former SAP Captain Andre Stander, serving 25 years in prison for numerous bank robberies and Patrick McCall who had been declared an habitual criminal and was serving an indeterminate sentence for car thefts and frauds, escaped from guards while undergoing treatment by a physiotherapist, having been taken there from Zonderwater Prison. While on the run they sprung another convict, Allan Heyl, while he was under escort at a trade test centre. Between August 1983 and January 1984, the Stander Gang, as they became known, went on a spree of armed bank robberies, often hopping from one neighbouring bank to the next, accumulating many thousands of Rands in stolen loot. On the 28 January 1984 Patrick McCall was killed in a shootout with police in Houghton, Johannesburg. Andre Stander flew to Fort Lauderdale in Florida, USA, using a forged passport, where he was also shot dead by the police there. Heyl escaped to the United Kingdom where he tried to continue his career of crime but was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment. He was later deported to South African where he is still serving sentences for bank robbery and other crimes. This is the intriguing story of the Stander Gang.