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Regretful young bank robber shares last hug with family before prison

A Calgary bank robber whose girlfriend worked as a teller at the Bank of Montreal in Mission and provided inside information is facing years in prison after a joint submission by the prosecution and defence.

Joint submission recommends six-year sentence for 'inside job' at Mission BMO Meghan Grant · CBC News · Posted: Nov 10, 2017 2:55 PM MT | Last Updated: November 10, 2017 Police closed down the intersection of Fourth Street and 23rd Avenue S.W. temporarily in Mission after a bank robbery on Nov. 26, 2014. (CBC)

A tearful scene unfolded in a Calgary courtroom Friday as the parents, grandmother and little brother of a young bank robber hugged him for the last time before he heads to prison.

"I deeply regret it every single day," Saleem Nasery told Court of Queen's Bench Justice David Gates.

Prosecutors Vicki Faulkner and Ryan Jenkins and defence lawyer Pat Fagan made a joint submission for a six-year prison sentence after Nasery pleaded guilty last month to robbery with a firearm, forcible confinement and wearing a disguise.

"He's got all the right stuff … to make a go of it, to be successful," said Fagan, representing Nasery. "He's got a real good future ahead of him."

Nasery apologized to his victims — the bank employees who were held hostage.

"That's not who I am," he said. "I'm sorry for ruining their lives… I don't want to be remembered as that person."

Gates asked Nasery's parents for some background on his family.

Nasery's father and mother moved to Canada from Afghanistan in the 1980s. His father's engineering degree was not recognized in Canada so he returned to school. For 21 years, he worked in Calgary's oil and gas sector until he was laid off during the downturn. He's been driving a taxi to support his family ever since.

"It's not an unfamiliar experience of people coming to this country with unrecognized experience," Gates said sympathetically.

Gates said he will sentence Nasery next Tuesday.

"This is a really difficult decision."

After adjourning the sentencing to next week, Nasery's mother, father, grandmother and little brother hugged him for the last time before sheriffs took the 24-year-old into custody.

Nasery, 24, and two others, robbed the institution in the southwest community of Mission in November 2014 using information provided by Kenza Belakziz, 22, who worked there as a teller.

All three were arrested within minutes.

Belakziz had given Nasery a list of employees who would be present during the November 2014 robbery, the layout of the bank, information about the silent alarm, the locations where money was stored and details on bait bills and dye packs. Kenza Belakziz was working at a Calgary BMO when she provided her boyfriend confidential bank information so he and his friends could rob the bank. Belakziz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery for being part of the inside job. (Meghan Grant/CBC)

Several of the employees whose wrists were zip tied together wrote about always looking over their shoulder afterward. The robbers turned off the lights and ordered the employees to "follow instructions or you will be hurt."

Marlene Martins said her peace of mind has been stolen and she suffers from nightmares, anxiety and stress.

"I have day-to-day reminders of the terror I felt," said Martins.

Christine Reddy said she "wondered every minute and every second if I would ever see my son again."

Belakziz's sentencing hearing has been delayed so the lawyers involved can address the judge's concerns that the proposed sentence of six months in jail was too low.

The other robbers, Matthew Alexis Valdes and Lucas Wayne Windsor, pleaded guilty in 2015. Valdes received a five-and-a-half year sentence for his role while Windsor got a five-year, two-month prison term.
 Meghan Grant

CBC Calgary reporter

Meghan Grant is the courts and crime reporter for CBC Calgary.



