Bank robber wrote polite note to demand cash

Neil Page, who used to work at a bank in Yeadon before later being made redundant from another job in sales, was said to have written practice notes before carrying out the robbery at the bank in Idle in October last year.

Barrister Michelle Colborne said her 31-year-old client had been assessed as suffering from an obsessive compulsive disorder which may have caused him to act entirely out of character.

She explained how he had written one note, but was unhappy with it because it was rude and contained a swear word.

"He scrapped that note entirely and wrote out a more polite note," she told Bradford Crown Court yesterday. "He's simply not the sort of character to go into a bank to be violent, or even to threaten violence and to steal."

She said during his own time working in a bank he had been responsible for huge amounts of money and had never been anything other than honest.

But the court also heard that Page, of Rowanberry Close, Bradford, had suffered health problems, which included the amputation of a foot, a marriage breakdown and financial difficulties.

During the robbery Page, who had no previous convictions, put a scarf over his face, but only after he had walked past the CCTV cameras.

Judge Robert Bartfield said there were some "extremely amateurish factors" in the robbery but Page had told the female cashier in the bank that he was armed and she was frightened because he had his hands in his pockets.

Page, who had driven to the bank in his own car, eventually fled with 2,000.

The car's registration number was taken by a passer-by and when Page was arrested two days later he had a few hundred pounds in his possession.

Page pleaded guilty to robbery and Judge Bartfield conceded it was an unusual case of its type.

But he said banks were vulnerable targets for those who wanted to solve their financial problems by committing robberies.

He jailed Page for 16 months, but said the sentence was much less than was prescribed for such an offence.