'The most unsuccessful criminal:' 70-year-old Vernon man jailed for bank robbery

CONTENT ADVISORY A 70-year-old Vernon bank robber who described himself as “the most unsuccessful criminal who never benefitted” from his life of crime was sentenced Friday to nine years jail. Keith Alan Timpany didn’t get any time to spend any of the $5,000 he stole at gun point from Vernon Interior Savings Credit Union in March 2022, having been arrested later that day. Appearing in a Vernon courtroom from custody, Dec. 6, Timpany shed a tear as he told BC Supreme Court Justice Alison Beames he’d like to apologize for the “total useless life” he’d led. “I intend to do better,” the senior told the court. If he doesn’t get parole, he’ll be 75 years old when he gets out, having been given four years credit for time already spent in custody. The court heard how Timpany and co-accused Dwayne Finlay staked out the Interior Savings Credit Union the night before he walked in armed with a fake gun and wearing a latex mask disguise. Crown prosecutor Matt Blow said it was a “fairly sophisticated” plan. The men two slept in Timpany’s vehicle in the Walmart parking lot the night before and then at about 9:30 the next morning Timpany entered the bank. He was 67-years-old at the time. Brandishing an imitation firearm, he told all the customers not to touch their phones, and pointed the gun at a bank teller. He handed over a backpack and told the teller to fill it with money. He wanted $10,000. A supervisor got the machine to dispense $5,000 – the maximum amount in a single transaction. Timpany banged his weapon on the bank counter and hit the supervisor in the back with the gun. The money dispensed slowly and he got inpatient. Once it had dispensed $5,000 he fled the bank, jumped in the getaway car and Finlay sped off. He drove to SilverStar and put the backpack in a plastic barrel in a friends shed. The court didn’t hear how police caught up with him so quickly but he was arrested later that day. He’s been behind bars since then, a place he’s all too familiar with. The court heard Timpany’s criminal record started in 1973. In 1978, he got seven years for importing drugs and in 1982 was jailed for 11 years for armed robbery. In the mid-1990s he got another decade-long sentence for armed robbery and has received numerous sentences of a few months for other crimes. Defence lawyer Michael Patterson described Timpany as a “broken man” whose life had been “tragic.” He’d become addicted to drugs at age 11 and was sent to the notorious Riverview Hospital in the Lower Mainland where he suffered physical and sexual abuse. Even for its day the hospital was criticized for its methods. It used shock treatment and insulin induced comas, some of its patients were serialized. The court heard how Timpany had never received any compensation, unlike some others, or had any therapy to deal with what happened to him the two years he was there. “He still walks with that shame in his head,” Patterson said. “He was angry and decided to become a criminal.” From there he “entered the pipeline” from foster care “straight to prison,” his lawyer said. He had had some positive times in his life and in his early 20s took university courses at Simon Fraser University and in Victoria, but never graduated. Later in life, he met his late wife, who was 25 years younger than him, she became pregnant, but she later miscarried and soon afterwards shot herself in front of him. The court heard at the time of the bank robbery, he was had no money for food or rent. He avoided trial and pleaded guilty. In a joint submission his lawyers asked for nine years jail. In a brief statement to the court, Timpany said he’d recently asked a minister what it was like to be a good man? The minister had said he didn’t have to worry about not going to heaven. “I’m late in the day but I have to worry about that,” Timpany said. To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer mailto:bbulmer@infonews.ca  or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .