SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A bank teller hunches as she tells the court how Patrick Ryan came to her Bank of Montreal till on April. 29 and slipped her a note reading "I have a gun, give all your money."

"I said, 'This is not a joke?'" she testified in NWT territorial court on Tuesday. "He said, 'No, this is not a joke.'"

Unable to see one of Ryan's hands, the teller said she froze - breaking bank protocol, which directs employees to co-operate in such situations.

"I hesitated because I thought he had a gun," she said. "Because I was scared, I hesitated."

And because she hesitated, so did Ryan, who, after a tension-filled moment, grabbed the threatening note and walked away. Security footage showed Ryan, 60, throwing away the note - written on the back of one of the bank's MasterCard applications - in a Centre Square Mall garbage can on his way out.

The note was recovered by RCMP the next day. Shown in court, it looked coffee-stained and weather beaten.

However, it and the testimony of the teller and three others was enough for Judge Robert Gorin to find Ryan guilty of attempted robbery and extortion.

That Ryan did not succeed in the robbery didn't mean he didn't intend to, said Gorin.

"The reference to the gun clearly intended he be taken seriously," he said.

He added he felt the only reason Ryan left was because the teller didn't comply quickly.

"To put it in the vernacular: (He) decided to get out while the going was good," he said.

Gorin also dismissed the defence's argument that the teller saw the whole thing as a bad joke.

"The question is not whether (the teller) thought she was being pranked, the question is whether she was being pranked," he said.

During the trial the court also heard from the other teller working at the time, who gave Ryan the pen he used to write the note. The bank manager also testified, as well as the RCMP officer who worked on the case.

The officer said he was able to identify Ryan, who is a tall, slim man with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair, by the mall's security footage and by still images taken from the bank's camera system.

Because the two similar charges stem from the same set of facts the lesser charge - in this case attempted robbery - was stayed. Attempted robbery carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, whereas extortion carries a life sentence maximum.

Sentencing is set for Oct. 13 to allow one of the tellers an opportunity to supply a victim impact statement, which Gorin will consider in making his decision.