Wearing coal-black gloves and a balaclava, a man slams an empty duffel bag on a counter and demands it be filled with contents from the safe.
“Take everything out you got in there and put it in this green bag … everything, everything … stay where you are, you too young lady, if anyone tries to follow, you will be shot,” he says.
He waves his rifle in the air, “terrifying” the innocent bank tellers behind the counter.
This was a heist in a usually quiet South Australian town.
But for the man behind the mask, it was not his first and it would not be his last.
On one occasion, he fires three shots but does not injure anybody.
“Quite loud indeed, and in quick succession, bang, bang, bang,” one witness previously said.
He was so efficient with his robberies that police told the public at the time that they believed he may have had experience working in banks.
The man would often flee the crime scenes on a bicycle — it was harder for police to track him that way.
Something he would have known, having served as a police officer himself.
But, with his identity unknown, he was branded the “bicycle bandit”.
The man was an outlaw who targeted banks across the Adelaide Hills starting with ANZ in Mannum on May 21, 2004 and ending with Bank SA in Mount Pleasant on September 4, 2014.
He took $358,967 over 10 years, only leaving empty-handed on one occasion.
But, in his robbery of the ANZ Bank in Balaklava in 2008, he left something behind that would eventually lead to his arrest.
His blood.
The culprit cut himself on a fence and police now had his DNA.
This is how South Australia’s most notorious bank robber was finally caught after almost two decades on the run.
Who was he?
The law finally caught up with 73-year-old Kym Allen Parsons, a former SA police officer and firefighter, in 2023.
Police were eventually able to link the DNA from the blood spatter he left in 2008 to a series of armed robberies spanning over a decade.
DNA was also obtained from a bike Parsons left at one of the crime scenes.
He was arrested in October last year at his recently purchased seaside address at O’Sullivan Beach in Adelaide’s south.
Police said they found 4,000 rounds of ammunition, six unregistered firearms discretely concealed in PVC pipes, a balaclava, taser and “robbery planning documents”.
Amongst the firearms was a distinct Chinese gun that police said was used in all of his crimes.
SAPOL refused to confirm when Parsons worked in the police force, what his duties were, or whether he was a serving officer while he committed the robberies.
He was also a firefighter for 33 years, with a South Australian court hearing he had likely contracted his cancer through this work.
Archived government records from 1989 show he was awarded the national medal for his work with the SA Metropolitan Fire Service — a Commonwealth award that recognises people who risk their lives or safety to protect or assist the community.
During court proceedings that followed, the court heard he had been battling cancer since 2007 and had committed five of the robberies while he was unwell.
Police records show his crimes mostly occurred around lunchtime — when more staff usually take their break.
Criminology expert Andrew Goldsmith from Flinders University said Parsons was an intelligent operator.
“Given his extensive career in bank robbery, [his] time in the police would have given him a practical appreciation of bank security practices and their weak spots,” Professor Goldsmith said.
“He notably chose targets in quiet hills and country locations where the chances of being observed or interrupted were fewer than if he robbed busier city branches.
“Also, such locations would have had fewer screens, CCTV, etc, making it easier to get away with it.”
Bank robberies in decline
It is unclear why Parsons stopped robbing banks after 2014.
Whatever the case, it reflected a general downwards trend in bank robberies at the time.
According to a report on bank robberies in Australia by Maria Borzycki published in the year before Parsons’s offending began, bank hold-ups were in decline and had been declining since 1998.
Reduced branches at high-risk locations were said to be one potential reason for the drop.
Banks had also strengthened their security, which made it harder for opportunistic robbers.
In more recent years, there has been a wave of regional bank closures across the country, with younger generations increasingly opting to use electronic funds rather than cash.
When was he caught?
Shortly after his arrest in October 2023, the public learned how serious Parsons’s cancer diagnosis was.
Defence lawyers sought bail for Parsons — saying he had lost 7 kilograms while in custody.
A specialist medical report was produced at the hearing, confirming Parsons had less than 12 months to live.
Bail was granted in that same month.
In April this year, he pleaded not guilty to his crimes in the Supreme Court and a trial was initially set for February 2025.
But earlier this month, SA’s so-called “bicycle bandit” changed his plea to guilty for 10 counts of aggravated robbery.
Defence lawyer James Marcus said “he pleaded guilty … to bring closure to the families and victims of the offending.”
Parsons’s bail was revoked and he was taken back into custody.
A week later, Parsons was handed a 35-year sentence.
Supreme Court Judge Sandi McDonald described his offending as “morally reprehensible”.
“You saw the terror in your victims’ eyes, and yet you went back and repeated that conduct over and over again,” she said.
Impact on his victims
Parsons’s victims told the court of the distress, panic and anxiety they had experienced in the years following his hold-ups.
“I have trouble sleeping, trouble trusting people and have had my enjoyment for work changed forever,” one victim said.
“For the past 15 years, I have experienced a world of emotions — I feel anger, rage, sadness, fear, anxiety, hatred, bitterness and more.”
Outside court, one of his victims, Rose Linder, described the experience as “horrific”.
“We had a gun aimed at us — who knew if he had bullets or not? So it’s a trauma,” she said.
“He came in, he pulled his balaclava down, pulled out his weapon, asked our customer to lie on the floor and took all the money.”
Victims advocate Michael O’Connell said innocent staff and bystanders may have experienced immediate effects like fear and apprehension of death, followed by short- and long-term trauma.
“There’s a stage of what’s called denial and exploration of self-blame, where victims ask: ‘Why me? What drew attention to me?'” Mr O’Connell said.
He said the scars that were left were often psychological and potentially not as obvious as physical injuries to the outside world.
“These people are often struggling to cope … nightmares … it can be lifelong,” he said.
Mr O’Connell also said some of the victims may not have received lump sum compensation payments because the incidents occurred in a workplace.
He explained they would have been entitled to work cover provisions for physical and psychological injuries and income maintenance, but likely no lump sum unless there were certain exceptions.
“If they had been walking along the street and been robbed, they would have been entitled to apply for a lump sum under the victim compensation scheme,” he said.
VAD controversy
Two days after his sentence on June 26 at 12:15pm, the SA’s Department of Correctional Services confirmed Parsons had died.
“It can be confirmed that Kym Allen Parsons died in DCS custody,” the spokesperson said.
SA’s Supreme Court had previously heard that Parsons had been granted access to the state’s Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) program because he had stage 4 terminal cancer.
DCS would not confirm where he died or the cause of his death.
Following his death, one of his victims told the ABC they did not feel like he had served his time.
Mr O’Connell said there were diverse views about people having access to VAD in prison.
“There are some who say, ‘well, it would have cost us $100,000 a year, plus all the medical expenses to keep him in prison’,” he said.
“So, if he had served more than two decades of his sentence, then really, by him taking his own life, he has saved the taxpayer a considerable sum of money.”
Mr O’Connell added that some people may feel as though Parsons had not genuinely been held to account.
“There will be many people, not just the victims, who will feel that justice has not been done and that he’s taken, for want of a better word, the coward’s way out of having to face the term of imprisonment.”
He also said Parsons did not plead guilty at the earliest opportunity and seemed to have carried out the justice process on his terms.
Mr O’Connell said that while he was a supporter of VAD, he believed it should not be an option for people facing criminal prosecution.
“In circumstances where there is a conflict between the rights of the person who is accused of committing serious crimes and the rights of the victims to access justice … then those victims’ rights should prevail and a person should not have access to voluntary assisted dying whilst they are being investigated, prosecuted and ultimately criminal proceedings are ongoing,” he said.
The victims advocate said he would argue that victims’ views should be taken into account and they should be engaged in the process.
“We have acknowledged that victims have a right to be involved in those key decisions that affect them,” he said.
VAD was legalised in SA in January last year, and was accessed by more than 100 people in its first year.