Stopwatch Gang bank robber and author denied full parole
Posted March 3, 2015 3:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA – Bank-robber-turned-author Stephen Reid, who was a member of the notorious Stopwatch Gang, has been denied full parole.
Reid is currently on day parole and living in a halfway house in the Victoria area as he serves an 18-year sentence for a 1999 bank robbery and shootout in Victoria.
Two parole board members say Reid’s risk to re-offend, especially if he returns to drug use, outweigh the positive changes he has made in his life.
Parole board member Alex Dantzer says the gravity of Reid’s robbery offence, in which shots were fired during a police chase, must be taken into account.
Dantzer says Reid’s parole supervision record is not stellar and his ability to deceive people about his drug use and actions remain a great concern.
Reid was a member of the Stopwatch Gang, a prolific group of thieves who targeted more than 100 banks and armoured cars in the United States and Canada in the in the 1970s and 1980s.
