Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 28-year-old Yellowknife man pleaded guilty on Friday to robbing the Winks Convenience store on Forrest Drive.

Scott Banks admitted to walking into the store at 2:33 a.m. on May 6 with a kitchen knife.

He held up the knife and demanded the store clerk fill a plastic bag with money. Banks made off with somewhere between $50 and $100, according to the facts as read by Crown prosecutor Maryse Nassar.

The robbery lasted no more than two minutes. Banks made off on foot and turned himself in to Yellowknife RCMP the next morning.

"(This is) a serious offence and a violent one," said Nassar.

She requested Banks be sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.

Defence attorney Pat Cashman described Banks as a man "driven by his personal demons."

He said Banks struggles with an addiction to crack cocaine and was under the influence at the time.

"It's destroying him," said Cashman of Banks' crack habit.

"This is a completely irrational action."

Cashman argued that Banks was not thinking clearly during the robbery as he did not wear a disguise and was aware of the video surveillance present in the store.

Cashman requested a sentence of 12 months in jail, with credit for time served.

"Obtaining money to feed a crack habit is a common motivator for robbery," said Judge Brian Bruser.

Bruser adjourned the matter to July 21 in order to review case law and consider the appropriate sentence.