A Kamloops man who was literally caught red-handed after robbing a downtown bank earlier this year will spend two years in a federal prison.
Matthew Phillip Graham pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to one count of robbery.
Crown prosecutor Chris Balison said Graham entered the TD Canada Trust branch at Victoria Street and Third Avenue on the morning of June 9.
“He proceeded to one of the tills and produced a note,” Balison said. “The note said, ‘Please remain calm. This is a robbery. Give me all the cash.'”
Balison said the teller followed the orders, but hid a dye pack in with the money.
A short time later, a police officer a block away noticed Graham walking with red dye on his hands and on his pants. He was arrested and has been in custody since.
Graham, 26, has a very distinct appearance, including multiple tattoos on his face. He made no attempt to cover his face during the robbery.
“This was probably the least sophisticated robbery I’ve seen in some time,” defence lawyer Sheldon Tate said. “This young man, as you see from his physical appearance, is highly identifiable. He entered that day without any attempt to hide his physical markers on his face and body.”
Tate said Graham robbed the bank because he needed money to pay for necessities, noting Graham confessed to the robbery a short time after his arrest.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop handed Graham a two-year prison sentence and banned him from possessing firearms for life. He will also have to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.
That specific branch of TD Canada Trust has been robbed twice this year, with exploding dye being used in both cases.
On March 31, 41-year-old Shane Michael Grant held up the bank and had a dye pack in the bag of money explode as he tried to escape as a passenger in a taxi. Grant was sentenced last week to three years in prison.
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