Yahoo News Bungling bank robber back behind bars after trying to rob the same branch three times
A bungling bank robber is back behind bars after he tried to raid the same branch three times.
Cecil Stevens, 56, had already served a prison sentence for bank robbery when he targeting a Natwest branch in Birmingham city time after being released.
He managed to escape with cash on October 11 before returning to rob the same place 24 hours later.
That time he grabbed a red dye pack along with cash and was caught on CCTV with the dye leaking from his trouser pockets.
He abandoned the cash and dye pack in a nearby bin before trying his luck at a neaby Nationwide branch, where he threatened a cashier and grabbed notes from an auto teller machine with a towel wrapped around his head before fleeing the scene when a security device was activated.
Stevens, of Digbeth, Birmingham, then returned to the same Natwest on November 7 where security staff immediately recognised him from the previous robberies and he was arrested.
The 56-year-old, who had already served two prison sentences for robbing a building society in Walsall, West Midlands, at gunpoint in 1998 and a post office robbery in East Yorkshire in 2008, was jailed for 11 years at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to one robbery, two thefts and one attempted theft.
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Detective Constable Nick Betts, of West Midlands Police, said: “I have to praise the actions of the bank manager and security team in the city centre. They reacted immediately and were instrumental in putting a prolific offender behind bars for a very long time."
A spokesperson for Colmore BID (Business Improvement District) said: “Keeping local businesses safe is a key part of the work that we do.
"We’re really proud of the partnership we have with West Midlands Police that helps us to do this, and we are pleased to have been involved in helping to bring this offender to justice."
