EXCLUSIVE
A father accused of orchestrating an armed bank robbery two years after fleeing to the desert with his three young children may not be guilty of robbery, according to a bank worker.
Tom Phillips disappeared in the hills around Marokopa, south of Auckland, with Jayda, 11, Maverick, nine, and Ember, eight, in December 2021, following a custody fight with his mother, Cat.
They were feared dead until Oct. 3, when teenage hog hunters filmed them wandering the countryside, dressed in military-style combat suits and carrying heavy backpacks.
Phillips is now a fugitive, wanted by police for a series of crimes allegedly committed in the Waikato region, including stealing quad bikes and robbing an ANZ bank with one of his daughters in Te Kuiti.
However, the locals are convinced that the thief was not him because they know who the real thief was in the close-knit community. The real criminal has never been caught.
“It wasn’t Tom,” one woman told Daily Mail Australia.
“My friend works at the bank and she knows… It wasn’t Tom.”
Pictured: CCTV of two robbers outside the ANZ bank in Te Kuiti. Police believe the person on the left is Tom Phillips and the other is one of his sons.
Pictured: A ‘missing’ sign in the window of a shop in the Waikato region where the family went missing.
Pictured: The ANZ bank in Te Kuiti, which police say was robbed by Tom Phillips and one of his sons.
The woman said CCTV released by police, which apparently shows Phillips wearing a mask and an accomplice, does not prove the robber’s identity.
‘What do the police have? CCTV of a man in a mask? It’s nothing,’ he said.
A local man pointed out that the thief was the same height as Phillips, but that was where the resemblance ended.
“Their height matches, but that’s all they have,” he said.
‘Two arms and two legs, motorcycle helmet’.
The woman explained that the case has divided the Waikato region based on whether they are on ‘Team Tom’ or ‘Team Cat’, but people are too afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation for their opinions.
“I’m on team Tom, but if you say that and some extreme supporters on the other side know who you are, they’ll come to your house and threaten you,” he said.
“I would help him if he came to my door and I know plenty of other people who would.”
“I think he’s just a father who loves his children and desperately wants to keep them out of court. He wanted to protect them and that’s what he had to do.
He said opinion had been divided in the small community due to long-standing loyalties to both sides of the family.
Tom Phillips (pictured) disappeared with his three children in December 2021.
The Phillips children, pictured from left to right: Ember, now eight, Maverick, now nine, and Jayda, now 11.
“Missing” signs can be seen in shop windows in the surrounding towns where they disappeared, but there are none in Marokopa itself, where Phillips’s parents live.
The woman said the location of the “missing” signs shows how polarized the case has become in the area.
Cat, the children’s mother, previously described Phillips as a controlling person who uses the children “as pawns in his game.”
“Supporting Thomas is essentially supporting child abuse because that’s what it is,” he previously told local media.
‘I just want my babies to be home. I still have some of their clothes and Christmas gifts from the year they disappeared. I don’t even know what they look like now.
The 16-year-old hunters who took images of the fugitive clan in early October thought the group were poachers and called them out. Jayda responded.
“I said, ‘This is private property,’ and she said, ‘Yeah… right.’ Then I asked, ‘Does anyone know you’re here?’ and she said, ‘No, just you,'” one of them said. the boys to the local media.
Cat (pictured) is the mother of the missing Phillips children who are believed to be living off the land with their fugitive father Tom Phillips.
A father and his three children who had not been seen for three years were spotted on the west coast of New Zealand (pictured)
Since the images surfaced, Cat has wondered if her daughter was trying to get a message across to the public.
She said: ‘Is that a cry for help? Is that: “Does anyone know we’re here?” Is someone coming to look for us? We don’t get to hear the tone of his voice, but to me, that’s what I think.
“It’s like he’s trying to say something without actually saying it because his dad is there, and he’s worried that if he says the wrong thing and phrases it incorrectly, he’s worried about the repercussions later.”
Police offered an $80,000 reward for information leading to the three children, but it expired after eight weeks with no results.
The official search was suspended after a few days.
No one has seen Phillips or her children since the sighting in early October.