Bomb-threat bank robber sentenced

A Jamaican immigrant has been jailed for presenting menacing notes to a National Bank staff member, threatening to kill her family and blow up the bank if she did not hand over $100,000.

A plea to reduce the sentence to "save the New Zealand taxpayer" fell on deaf ears. Paul Martin David Williams, 34, was sentenced yesterday to three years and five months behind bars by Wellington District Court judge John Walker.

Williams had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of threatening to kill, one of threatening to harm property, and one of demanding to steal.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Miller said Williams would be deported at the end of his sentence.

"A shorter sentence would save the New Zealand taxpayer and he would then be somebody else's problem over in Jamaica."

The argument was dismissed by Judge Walker. "While that might be true, the saving to the New Zealand taxpayer is not a relevant sentencing consideration."

Williams, who had no previous convictions, set up an elaborate series of notes which the bank teller, whose name is suppressed, was ordered to follow. On December 9 he was outside the National Bank in Featherston St, Wellington, when he asked a passer-by to take a Christmas card to a staff member he knew. It was addressed to her personally.

The card contained three notes, which told the teller someone was watching and to put $100,000 in a bag and bring it outside.

It threatened to kill her and her family. The second note was to be read outside.

It instructed her where to leave the money and told her to then go back to the bank.

"If you look back we will kill you and your family," the second note said.

The third note told her to wait 10 minutes then evacuate the bank because there were four bombs and the note-writers did not want anyone to get hurt.

Police were called and evacuated the 13-storey building. The area was cordoned off for more than five hours and part of the city ground to a halt.

A police search found no explosives.

Williams was arrested at Sydney airport as he was about to fly to Canada on December 17 and was extradited to New Zealand.

He had originally entered New Zealand on a two-year working visa.

- © Fairfax NZ News