WESTLAKE VILLAGE : Student Gets 3 Years for Bank Robbery

A Westlake Village college student who robbed his home bank in February and fled to Canada, only to turn himself in four days later, has been sentenced to three years and five months in federal prison.

Shane Irwin Mahoney, 20, was living in San Luis Obispo, where he attended Cal Poly University, when he robbed the Westlake Village branch of California Federal Bank on Feb. 5, said Special Agent Gary Auer of the FBI’s Ventura office.

“This is a terribly sad human-interest story,” Auer said after Mahoney’s sentencing Monday in Los Angeles.

Carlton Gunn, a federal public defender who represented Mahoney, said Mahoney was experiencing emotional turmoil when he held up the bank branch where he had had an account. He characterized Mahoney’s choice of banks to rob as a “self-destructive act.”

A teller recognized Mahoney and advised investigators that the suspect was a former customer, Auer said.

After fleeing the bank with about $2,000, Mahoney made his way to Victoria, B.C., before turning himself in to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Feb. 9, said FBI Special Agent Charlie J. Parsons. He voluntarily returned to Seattle, where the FBI arrested him on a bank robbery charge.

Mahoney pleaded guilty to the charge in a May 3 court appearance in Los Angeles, leading to his sentencing Monday. Besides the prison time, Mahoney will serve five years probation once he leaves prison.