'Dreadlocks bandit' gets 1,210 years for robbery spree

A man dubbed the “dreadlocks bandit” because of his hairstyle was jailed for 1,210 years in California and given 22 consecutive life terms for a string of bank robberies he committed after being released from prison for an earlier hold-up spree.

It was one of the longest sentences handed down in Los Angeles County, officials said.

David Robinson, 54, was sentenced in Superior Court. He was convicted in October of 19 counts of second-degree robbery and three counts of attempted robbery. Jurors were deadlocked on an additional robbery count and six other charges were dismissed during the trial.

Robinson received the maximum sentence for each count, to be served consecutively, along with enhancements because of his previous record of multiple robberies, officials said.

“This was the sentence that was allowable under the law,” said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Robinson spent 14 years in prison for a two-year bank robbery spree that ended in 1989, the FBI said.

He was released in 2004 and between August and October of that year obtained £37,000 (€53,000) by robbing 19 banks in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Glendale, Alhambra, West Covina, Manhattan Beach and Torrance, prosecutor Warren Kato said.

He was arrested in October 2004 as he drove out of the car park of a Torrance bank that was under surveillance because it had been robbed days earlier and authorities believed it might be hit again.