Did the crime, doing the time
A man who robbed a casino in Scotland wrote out his detailed plan for the heist on a pizza box. Hassan Fallah stole about ￡48,000 ($57,548) worth of casino chips and cash from the Genting Casino in Edinburgh at about 1am on August 9, 2021. He wore a balaclava and used a large recon knife during the robbery.
sentenced to four years and nine months in prison
The authorities tracked him down and he has now been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison. Police have been unable to recover the ￡40,800 ($48,916) in stolen casino chips or the ￡7,345 ($8,806) in cash.
Failed to cover his tracks
To carry out the robbery, Fallah went to the casino’s underground car park and approached a hospitality worker who was on a break. Already wearing the balaclava, Fallah pulled out a knife, instructing the employee to take him through staff corridors to get to the cash desk. When he reached his destination, Fallah told another worker to fill a bag with “all the f*****g money” before fleeing the scene.
Casino staff were able to identify Fallah after the robbery and proceeded to the hostel where he was staying, where they found the pizza box and other items. The 23-year-old had written on the pizza box: “Here get changed become place to anonymously be-hoodie-mask+face covering before-knife- bag change of clothes getaway plan.” He then listed out certain expensive items that he wanted to buy.
He also left a reminder to himself to not spend too much of the money in stores.
Police also found ￡195 ($234) in cash, a notebook, and a laptop. In the notebook, the robber mentioned hiding any money he stole and potentially burying the chips. He also left a reminder to himself to not spend too much of the money in stores. Police found internet searches for “casino anti-surveillance,” “casino rob” and “Genting Edinburgh” on the computer.
A serious case
At the time of the robbery, Fallah was unemployed and had only been out of prison four months after serving a 13-month sentence for shoplifting, assaulting and racially abusing security staff, and being in possession of a knife.
The judge in the case noted that a lot of preplanning went into the casino robbery and how to spend the resulting funds. Lord Tyre also explained that the prison sentence would have been a lot longer if Fallah was older than 25. After the sentencing, Detective Inspector Keith Taylor thanked the casino staff for assisting in the investigation.