A bank robber claimed a judge had not considered how mentally troubled he and his family were when he was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
Lai Tat-wai, 29, went on a bank-robbing spree between October 1994 and September 1995. He used a black-painted dumbbell and told a bank teller it was a grenade which would explode if he was not given cash, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.
'He would produce a note saying: 'Robbery. I have a bomb and a gun. I want $300,000 or I will detonate the bomb',' Mr Justice Simon Mayo said.
A counter assistant at one bank handed Lai a stack of $10 notes only to be told he wanted higher denominations.
Lai was captured and Deputy Judge Duncan Kilgour sentenced him to 11 years and eight months in jail on November 6 last year, after he pleaded guilty to four robbery charges.
The judge had noted Lai came from a troubled family, and showed schizophrenic tendencies. Of the five Lai siblings, only one was not mentally handicapped or ill, the court heard. Lai was also an 'ice' addict.
