Two Australian bank robbers, Luke Carroll and Anthony Prince, were given jail terms by a US court today. The dramatic, tear-filled speeches appeared to have helped as US District Court judge Phillip Figa jailed the two mates, nicknamed Dumb and Dumber by the press, for far less than the maximum 25-year sentence. Carroll was sentenced to five years in a US prison, while New Zealand-born Prince was handed a four-and-a-half-year jail term. Prosecutors had asked for at least seven years and have not ruled out appealing the sentence.
Under US law, even with good behaviour they will have to serve at least 85 per cent of their sentences in America's harsh federal prison system, although there is the possibility they could be transferred to Australian jails. Why two clean-cut lads with no criminal history and loving parents back in Australia armed themselves with BB guns that looked like pistols, walked into a Vail, Colorado bank, injured one of the female tellers and placed a gun at the back of the other's neck, remained a mystery.
Prince's father, Peter, said his son must have been in a "fantasy land".
Prince told the court he also could not explain it. He said he had lived a sheltered life growing up in the quiet rural community of Rosebank, a small town outside Byron Bay on the NSW north coast, and had never experienced "the dark side" until his arrest.
One experienced American lawyer admitted he had never come across a crime similar to the violent bank robbery that briefly netted Carroll and Prince $US132,000 ($170,000), but also severely damaged the lives of the two and their families. "In the 33 years I have been practising law in this state, I don't think I've ever participated in a case that's sadder," Carroll's lawyer, Daniel Smith, told Judge Figa.