A Montreal music teacher who led a double life as a bank robber has been sentenced to eight years behind bars.
Mark Vandendool, 35, pleaded guilty in April to 25 charges related to a crime spree. Vandendool held up 12 banks in the Montreal area from September 2015 to March 2016 using a fake gun.
Vandendool, who was the lead guitarist for the '80s cover band Backtraxx and also a music teacher, was arrested in March 2016 by Montreal police as he was leaving a Cote-des-Neiges Rd. Bank of Montreal following a holdup.
At a sentence hearing in May, Vandendool’s lawyer Pierre Poupart said Vandendool committed the crimes to pay off money he owed to organized crime figures.
Poupart asked that Vandendool be sentenced to no more than five years behind bars, claiming his client suffered attention deficit disorder. He said the man wanted to prove he could pay off his debts without support from his parents.
Prosecutor Marie-France Drolet asked for a 12-year sentence.
Judge Nathalie Fafard’s decision came down Thursday morning.
This is not Vandendool's first time behind bars: When he was 25 years old and living in Kitchener, Ont., he was sentenced to five years in prison for covering his face and attempting to rob a bank with a fake gun.
