Ex-dentist sentenced to 5 years for ‘rolled-sleeves bandit’ bank robberies

A former Newport Beach dentist was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for stealing more than $21,000 during a string of bank robberies along the Southern California coast, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

The FBI dubbed Damian Newhart, 41, the “rolled-sleeves bandit” because he usually wore a button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves during the heists.

A federal judge also ordered Newhart to pay back the money he stole from seven branches in Huntington Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica.

In an agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office finalized in March, Newhart pleaded guilty to three counts of bank robbery and admitted that he had held up all seven branches.

Prosecutors wrote that Newhart showed an “extraordinary acceptance of responsibility” for the crimes, and they asked that he be sentenced to four years and three months behind bars instead of the U.S. Probation Office’s recommendation of at least 6 1/2 years.

According to court documents, Newhart turned to crime after he became addicted to alcohol, prescription painkillers and cocaine.

“Defendant began abusing Vicodin in 2007 or 2008, when he owned his dental practice and his marriage was struggling,” prosecutors wrote.

By 2012, Newhart’s drug use had become so bad that he stopped practicing, according to court documents. Two years later, the Dental Board of California revoked Newhart’s license because he had been writing illegal prescriptions to feed his habit.

“When defendant’s divorce was finalized in July 2014 and his dental license was revoked in approximately the same month, he stopped attending Alcoholics Anonymous, started using painkillers heavily, buying Norco from street-level drug dealers in Inglewood,” prosecutors wrote.

During his heists, which occurred between November 2013 and January 2015, Newhart typically handed a teller a threatening note demanding cash.

“I have a gun. You have 30 seconds. 100s, 50s, 20s,” one read, according to court documents.

After someone recognized him from security camera footage and tipped off authorities, federal agents arrested Newhart in January at an Inglewood dental office, officials said at the time.

Newhart previously had been convicted of grand theft, writing bad checks and illegally prescribing controlled substances, but prosecutors noted that he had never before committed a violent crime.

Prosecutors also cited a family history of drug and alcohol addiction as mitigating factors that should be considered in Newhart’s sentencing.

Staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.