A former Baltimore City police officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for disguising himself as a Dunbar Armored Security driver and duping Howard bank employees into handing over more than $370,000 in cash deposits.
Robert Flanagan Sr., 38, of Dundalk, pleaded guilty in July to felony theft and said Thursday that the financial stress of paying child support after a painful divorce drove him to commit the crime.
“I’m ashamed of what I’ve done and what I’ve put my family through,” Flanagan told Howard Circuit Judge Richard Bernhardt when asking for leniency. “I never intended for anyone to get hurt.”
Flanagan left the police force in 2006 for personal reasons and took a job at Dunbar Security. But he was fired in September 2007 when his employer noticed shortages from cash bags collected along his route, said prosecutor Lynn Marshall.
Two months later, Flanagan donned his old Dunbar uniform, walked into the Ellicott City Bank of America and collected $379,000 in cash deposits from a bank employee, who would later be fired for not asking Flanagan to show identification.
Flanagan and his second wife Robin Flanagan were arrested later that night Dec. 13, 2007, by police in York, Pa., where the couple bought a new car and deposited half of the stolen money into a bank account under the wife’s name.
“This was a brazen and arrogant heist,” Marshall said. “This case cries out for punishment.”
Marshall recommended a sentence of 12 years in prison — well above state guidelines of probation to six months incarceration.
Defense attorney Debra Saltz said 12 years would be “outrageous,” because Flanagan was acting in desperation to provide for his family.
She also noted Flanagan’s service in the U.S. Navy and as a police officer.
Flanagan’s mother Melissa Kelley-Smith tearfully testified that her son was once committed to the police department and had his badge tattooed on his arm, making him a potential target of other inmates if he is incarcerated.
Bernhardt recommended Flanagan for protective custody in prison, and ordered him to pay $182,000 in restitution to Bank of America for cash that was never found.
Flanagan has pending charges in Baltimore County for attempting the same scheme at a Towson Town Center store two months prior to his arrest. He was out on bond from that alleged theft when he committed the Bank of America theft, Marshall said.
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