Samantha Anstey was working a routine Monday morning shift at a CIBC bank in Sarnia when she suddenly became uncomfortable.
Samantha Anstey was working a routine Monday morning shift at a CIBC bank in Sarnia when she suddenly became uneasy.
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A man wearing a ski mask and a dark sweatshirt with the hood pulled up walked toward her window in the London Road branch on Dec. 18 around 10:30 am and asked for a piece of paper. She gave him one and the man behind the mask, Forest Jardine, jotted something down and handed it back.
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He said: “Give me the money, now.”
Terrified what would happen if she didn’t follow the demands, Anstey grabbed a stack of bills and handed them to Jardine. The 29-year-old Sarnia man turned and walked out with $530, hopped on a black BMX-style bicycle and pedaled toward a nearby apartment building on Afton Drive.
Sarnia police quickly surrounded the building and found Jardine inside a first-floor unit. He admitted what he did and was arrested.
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While recently sentencing Jardine to 16 months in jail for a series of crimes including the bank heist, Justice Paul Kowalyshyn told him to picture how Anstey must have felt that morning as a masked man walked up to her till.
“Can you imagine how terrified she would be,” he said.
The court heard she had to take a couple of days off work due to the stress the incident caused her.
Jardine declined a chance to address the court, but defense lawyer Terry Brandon said her client was struggling financially and mentally at the time amid an addiction to fentanyl. Still, many people in his life, including Jardine himself, had a hard time believing what he did that day, she said.
“That one really shocked him,” Brandon said. “The fact that he would do that.”
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Jardine was initially charged with robbery and disguise with intent. He pleaded guilty to the latter charge, but the former charge was changed to the lesser included offense of theft worth less than $5,000.
The prosecutor told the judge they agreed to that plea deal since there were no allegations of explicit threats or violence even though it would’ve been a disturbing and frightening incident for the clerk.
“It’s a serious matter,” Kowalyshyn told Jardine. “You are certainly fortunate the matter was resolved in that particular manner.”
Jardine also pleaded guilty to fraud worth less than $5,000 and theft worth less than $5,000 linked to two earlier incidents last summer. On July 21, a Sarnia man noticed his wallet, along with several other items, went missing from his unlocked car. His bank card was used 11 times that day at the Christina Street North 7-Eleven, the Exmouth Street Circle K, the Murphy Road Pioneer gas station and the Indian Road North Petro-Canada.
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Various purchases of cigarettes, snacks and prepaid credit cards added up to nearly $1,000.
Police looked at video surveillance and saw the same man at each location. Const. Blair Nield recognized Jardine.
Less than a month later, Jardine walked out of the same Circle K with nearly $40 in goods without paying for them. This time const. Philip Veal identified Jardine from the store’s security footage.
“I’ll put it very plainly: As a thief, you’re not very good,” the judge said.
Jardine never applied for bail after his arrest in December, racking up 71 days’ credit toward his 16-month sentence. Kowalyshyn, at the request of Jardine and his lawyers, recommended he serve his time at the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Center in Brockville to get help for his addiction.
When he’s released, he’ll be banned for two years from his victims, the four gas stations and convenience stores, the London Road CIBC, and all other banks in Ontario unless he’s a customer.
The rest of the charges were dropped.
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