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Man sentenced to seven years over bank security van heist

The third accomplice in the 1995 Bank of Butterfield security van heist has been ordered to spend seven years in prison.

Harron Lee Powell Evans, of Happy Valley Road, Devonshire, was sentenced yesterday in the Supreme Court after pleading guilty to one of the six charges against him.

He was one of three men arrested for committing a daring daytime bank heist at the Mermaid Beach Club in November 1995.

Evans was charged with conspiring to rob and conspiring to steal from the Bank of Butterfield in October 1995, and arming himself with a firearm while doing so.

He was also charged with using a firearm to commit an indictable offence, with carrying an imitation firearm with the intent to commit an indictable offence, and stealing.

Yesterday, Evans pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to using an offensive weapon to rob a bank employee of money and other items. The other charges were not proceeded with but were left on the books.

Tens of thousands of dollars were snatched at gunpoint from a Bank of Butterfield security van on November 10, 1995 as it pulled into the Mermaid Beach Club on South Shore Road in Warwick to restock an on-site ATM.

Accomplices Omar Devall Amory and Kirk Mundy were already sentenced in the Supreme Court on the matter.

Mundy was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the heist and Amory received a four year prison sentence.

The Crown contended that during October and early November, 1995, Evans and Mundy solicited the cooperation of Amory to help with the heist.

Amory was employed by the bank as a security officer at the time and operated the vehicles used to transfer money to ATMs and banks throughout the Island.

He agreed to the plan and provided inside information and "passive compliance'' during the robbery.

Evans, armed with a hand pistol (an air gun but still considered a firearm under the Fire Arm Act), and Mundy, carrying a wooden imitation machine gun, approached the van carrying Amory and a co-worker outside the Mermaid Beach Hotel on South Road, Warwick.

Crown counsel Patrick Doherty said that Evans pointed his gun at the bank worker and demanded that she surrender all property.

The two men then escaped on motorbike with more than $40,000, electronic equipment, and some keys.

While Mundy and Evans fled, Amory consoled his co-worker who according to Mr.

Doherty has since suffered great mental anguish over the incident.

After hearing submissions from Evan's lawyer Victoria Pearman, Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller ordered Evans to serve seven years in prison for the part he played in the heist.