A man found guilty of seven Vancouver and Burnaby bank robberies in three weeks has been sentenced to two years in jail after chalking up an “exceptional” rehabilitation record since his arrest, according to a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
Eranga De Silva was arrested on Feb. 18, 2016 in the back of a Burnaby cab after robbing his seventh bank since Jan. 29 that year – this one a TD Canada Trust at 4994 Kingsway. It was the second time he had robbed that branch. He had also robbed a TD Canada Trust at 3710 Canada Way and banks in Vancouver.
De Silva was eventually convicted on seven counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery.
In each case, he had handed a bank teller a note saying he had weapon (a gun or, in one case, a gun and a grenade) and demanded specific sums of money ranging from $1,200 to $3,000.
He never displayed a weapon of any kind, according to court documents.
All of the tellers gave De Silva less than he asked for, and the first teller he tried to rob refused to give him anything.
“In that case, after the teller refused, Mr. De Silva asked him if he was sure, and the teller said ‘Yes,’ and Mr. De Silva left the bank,” states an Aug. 17 sentencing ruling.
In total, De Silva succeeded in robbing the banks of $2,360.
De Silva came to Canada as a five-year-old in 1997 when his family fled political turmoil in Sri Lanka, according to court documents. He became a Canadian citizen in 2013.
As a teen, he fell into drug use and associated with people in the drug trade. He became drug-dependent in his late teens and early 20s.
His robberies were perpetrated to get money for drugs, according to a pre-sentencing report cited in his sentencing ruling.
The prosecution in the case called for a five-year jail term, while De Silva’s lawyer argued for a two-year sentence with three years’ probation.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice George Macintosh agreed with the defence submission, citing De Silva’s lack of a previous adult criminal record, his family support, his efforts at rehabilitation and the particular facts of his robberies.
While robbery can be a most serious crime with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, according to Macintosh, he said the particular facts underlying each conviction must be given proper weight.
“This case cannot be viewed in the same way as one, for example, in which a perpetrator enters a bank, brandishes a weapon, and demands all those present to lie face down,” he said.
