Vulnerable student sentenced for bank robberies
Posted Jan 24, 2012 06:21:46 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – In what is being called a lenient sentence, a judge described a bank robber as having a low level of emotional maturity and a learning disability before sentencing him to two years less a day for robbery.
Roy Harb who is now 21 was 19 and a student at Algonquin College when he was convinced to rob twelve banks of $33,000 over a four month period.
Harb’s lawyer Samir Adam said he was preyed upon for being naive and said his behaviour was unlike him, and far from the ways in which he had been raised.
Harb was apologetic in front of the judge and said “I wish I could take it back.”
Prosecutor Walter de Venz said the team of robbers also took advantage of similar defenceless people in cities such as Kitchener, and London Ontario.
The jail time was the minimum the crown would accept. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Ontario Court Justice Lise Maisonneuve said the lenient sentence should not be considered a precedent setting sentence, and was only handed down do to some” very exceptional circumstances”
The mastermind behind the plan was sentenced to five years in prison.
