West Norriton Man Robs Bank While on Work Release

According to The Times Herald, a West Norriton man admitted in court that he robbed a bank in Radnor on March 13 of this year, just four days after he walked off a county work release program. He was reportedly in the work release program so he could repay the victims of the burglary he was previously convicted for.

Twenty five-year-old Michael Francis Hamilton, of West Norriton, was reportedly serving a six-to-12 month sentence for a felony burglary charge and on March 9, guilty reportedly didn't return to jail from his work release detail. Four days later, on March 13, police say he robbed a Sovereign Bank in Radnor with a note that read, "I have a gun, put all money in an envelope, no dye packs, no alarms, no one will get hurt." He was .

After pleading guilty to a felony escape charge, Hamilton was sentenced to three-to-seven years in a state prison, to run consecutively to the six-to-12 year sentence he received for the bank robbery for a total of nine-to-19 years in prison.

"He was to have work release in order to pay restitution to the [burglary victims]. His role in that was to cooperate and do the right thing going forward and the fact that he didn’t, the fact that he decided to take advantage of the system, is what directly led to this long prison sentence that he’s now facing," Assistant District Attorney Noah Marlier told the Herald.

Read more about the case here.