Nijar bank robber’s disguise was an epic fail

A FRENCHMAN found guilty of trying to rob a San Jose (Nijar) bank received a three-year prison term.
Witnesses later said he had been loitering near the bank since the early morning, clearly waiting until only the employee was inside.
Wearing a raincoat, cap, sunglasses and with a scarf covering his mouth, he walked in and took out a sawn-off shotgun hidden under the raincoat.
“This is a holdup,” he declared but the bank employee looked up, recognised him as a regular client, and asked: “Is that you?” addressing him by name.
Realising that he had been identified, he told her that he was joking only wanted his bank statement. She printed out the statement “with great fear and distress” the court heard, and the would-be attacker left.
Police searching storage units that belonged to the suspect the same day found the clothes, the shotgun and its sawn-off butt.
The court substituted the prosecution’s recommended 12-month sentence for illicit possession of a firearm with a fine of €5 per day for two years. The accused was also barred from approaching the bank branch or its employees for three years.