B.C. man sentenced for string of bank robberies

A 59-year-old Kelowna man robbed three banks earlier this year to avoid becoming homeless after losing his job.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to three and a half years in jail.

William Martens' first robbery occurred on the morning of Jan. 31 at the Scotiabank on Highway 33 in Rutland. Martens entered the bank just before 10 a.m. and handed a note to the teller, claiming he was carrying a gun and demanding money. He made off with $1,300.

A month later, on the morning of March 1, Martens struck again at the RBC on Pandosy Street in the Mission. Once again using a threatening note, Martens made off with $200.

Based on security footage, police were sure the same man was responsible for both robberies. Just two weeks later, Martens' crime spree came to an end.

After entering the TD bank across from Orchard Park Mall and pointing a realistic-looking imitation handgun at a teller, Martens made off with $200 and, unbeknownst to him, a GPS tracker.

Police followed the GPS signal to Springfield and Hollywood roads and pulled over a man in a black Dodge Neon, just seven minutes after the robbery. Police found the tracker, the imitation handgun and the clothes used in the previous robberies inside the car. Martens was arrested and quickly confessed to the crimes.

He told police: “It was either that or the street, and I’m not going to live on the street.”

Martens, a father of an adult son, has no prior criminal record. He had worked as a tile setter for most of his life before he was recently laid off. He told his lawyer Grant Gray that he didn’t seek social assistance after he was laid off because “of the way he was raised,” despite being on the verge of homelessness.

“It's incredible when you look back on it. I think he realizes now how stupid the whole thing was,” Gray told the court Wednesday, adding Martens family was “astonished” when they heard about the robberies.

He didn't seek bail after his arrest.

On Wednesday, Martens pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery and one count of using an imitation firearm to commit a robbery. Agreeing with a joint submission from the Crown and defence, Justice Marguerite Shaw sentenced Martens to 3.5 years for the three robberies, minus 153 days of presentence credit.

- Nicholas Johansen, Castanet