A 37-year-old man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for a slew of bank, liquor store and gas station robberies, including one in Burnaby.
Clint Aaron Jeremy Billy pleaded guilty in November 2022 to nine counts of robbery, three counts of using an imitation firearm in an offence, one count of possessing an imitation handgun and one count of breaching of a release order, all between December 2019 and March 2022, according to a B.C. provincial court ruling last month.
He was sentenced in North Vancouver provincial court on Oct. 25.
Burnaby robberies
The Burnaby charge related to a bank robbery on Jan. 27, 2021, according to the ruling.
Billy entered a local TD Canada Trust masked with a bandana and wearing sunglasses and a hat.
He approached a teller, saying he wanted to open an account, but then pulled out a handgun, pointed it at the teller and demanded $10,000.
When he was given a $200 dye pack, he refused it and said he wanted $10,000 or he would start shooting.
He then got $400 and fled in a taxi – where he left fingerprints and was captured on a surveillance camera, the ruling said.
Billy was also charged in two other Burnaby robberies, but those charges were stayed as part of a plea deal.
On Jan. 26, 2021, he got $400 in cash (with a GPS tracker attached) after he entered a different TD Canada Trust bank in Burnaby masked with a bandana, hat and sunglasses and demanded $10,000.
Less than five hours later, he then entered a local 7-Eleven, once again masked with a bandana and sunglasses.
"He had his hand in his pocket holding it in the shape of a gun," stated the ruling. "He said, 'Do you want me to shoot your co-worker in the head?' The clerk did not give him anything and he left the store."
9-year sentence
In all, Billy was charged with robbing seven Lower Mainland banks, four liquor stores, three gas stations and one Subway restaurant.
One employee, robbed by two men at gunpoint at one of the liquor stores, told the court she was traumatized, had to take five months off work and needed extensive counselling to deal with her fear and anxiety.
Crown prosecutor Ariana Ward had argued for a prison sentence in the range of nine-and-a-half to 10 years, while Billy's lawyer, Angela Barna, said the sentence should be in the seven- to eight-year range.
B.C. provincial court Judge Joanne Challenger sentenced Billy to nine years in prison minus almost seven years' credit for time he has already served.
She also handed him a lifetime firearms ban and ordered him to provide a sample of his DNA.
'Predatory, planned and deliberate'
Challenger noted Billy had a lengthy criminal record, including 11 previous robbery convictions, and was on probation when he committed some of the new robberies.
Billy's offences were also "inherently violent and serious" and his victims were vulnerable because of their jobs, Challenger said.
As mitigating factors she noted Billy's guilty pleas and his Indigenous background, which included childhood trauma and instability related to the impacts of colonialism, residential schools and systemic racism.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1999 that courts must consider an Indigenous offender’s background during sentencing.
While Challenger acknowledged Billy had been "negatively impacted to a profound degree" by historical trauma, however, she said those factors only related to his crimes in an "indirect or incidental way."
She noted Billy doesn't have a mental disability and he wasn't on drugs or driven by addiction when he committed his offences.
Instead, she described his crimes as "predatory, planned and deliberate."
"He was motivated by greed," Challenger said. "He wanted easy money and was prepared to obtain it through violence."
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