‘Polite Bandit’ Gets 28-Year Prison Term
A man prosecutors dubbed the “Polite Bandit” because of his courteous manners while robbing small businesses was sentenced Friday to 28 years and 8 months in prison.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber imposed the sentence on Gary Allen Smith, 45, of Long Beach in connection with a string of 30 robberies, 18 of which occurred in the San Fernando Valley last spring.
Prosecutors had asked that Smith be sentenced to 30 years, nine years less than the maximum, because Smith pleaded guilty before the case went to trial. Smith was arrested in April at a drug treatment center in Tarzana when his mother turned him in after her car was linked to several of the robberies, authorities said.
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