The Sun, Vancouver, British Columbia, 7 February 1964

10 Years, Paddle Given Two Bandits

BURNABY (Staff) - Two young bank bandits were sentenced today to 10 years in the penitentiary and 10 strokes of the paddle.

James Harvey Ouelette and Errol Arthur Negard, both 18, received the sentences from Magistrate C.C. Bell.

They pleaded guilty a week ago to the $3,900 holdup of the Toronto Dominion Bank branch at 4477 Lougheed Highway Jan. 28.

They were arrested at Prince George 24 hours after the holdup with $3,700 of the bank money and a .22-calibre revolver used in the robbery in their possession.

Magistrate Bell ordered that the paddlings be administered in separate whippings of five strokes each.

RCMP Sgt. Bruce Northorp read to the court statements made by Ouelette and Negard in which they told of planning to rob a bank after they had gone broke while on a visit to Vancouver from Prince George.

Northorp said that in the last two years there have been 19 bank holdups in the Lower Mainland, 11 of which have been solved.

"This was the first robbery involving more than one bandit since 1962", Northorp said.

The two youths admitted entering the Burnaby bank to rob it after investigating a Vancouver bank and finding it too busy and therefore too dangerous to rob.