Former bank manager pleads guilty in string of robberies, home invasions

France Maurice, a former bank manager in Hawkesbury, has pleaded guilty for the role she played in the robbery of her own branch and planning home invasions targeting bank customers.

She was sentenced to six years in prison last Thursday, October 20 in the Superior Court of Justice in L'Orignal.

Judge Robert Pelletier sentenced her to four years for engineering the bank robbery at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) on Main Street in Hawkesbury in late 2009 and two more for her role in a home invasion.

Maurice is part of a group of 11 people, including several family members, arrested by Ontario and Quebec provincial police in early 2010. The arrests followed a series of nine robberies, break-ins and home invasions in Vankleek Hill, Hawkesbury and Mirabel. Most of the suspects lived in Brownsburg-Chatham.

A report in the Ottawa Citizen cited Maurice telling the court "she was overwhelmed with the stress of working 50-to 60-hour weeks managing first the CIBC branch in Embrun, and then the one she eventually robbed at 275 Main St. East in Hawkesbury."

Maurice also received one-year sentences on the other charges, theft of the credit card and criminal breach of trust, but these will run at the same time as the other six years.

Robberies and break-ins

The first two incidents were a break-in that occurred between November 26 and 27 at Stephanie's Restaurant, on Highway 34 near Hawkesbury, in which an undisclosed amount of cash was stolen, and a home invasion on November 30 at a Vankleek Hill residence in which masked suspects assaulted the homeowner and stole undisclosed amounts of jewellery and cash.

The homeowner, Michel Martel, had previously been assaulted and robbed at his same residence more than a year earlier, on June 24, 2008, but said the two incidents are not related whatsoever. Martel said the suspects were different on both occasions and, while the first incident was professional, involving multiple firearms, the second was "amateur" in nature.

Nevertheless, he was assaulted in both cases, though he specified the assault was worse in the first robbery. During the November 30 incident, he said he was punched in the face, causing his lips to split open and bleed.

Furthermore, in the second incident, Martel said he knew his assailants. "I didn't know all six of [those arrested], but I know three of them quite well."

The Citizen reported that Maurice never participated directly in the violence, but she engineered and provided information for break-ins at the homes of customers.

Maurice was the last of the group to be dealt with by the courts. Her preliminary hearing ended in the summer. While all of her co-accused pleaded guilty, she initially pleaded not guilty and had been free on bail.

Those previously convicted include France's younger sister, Josée Maurice, who received six years; Josée's common-law husband, Marcel Larocque; Larocque's son, Martin Paquin-Larocque, who was 19 at the time; and a young offender who is also related to the family. His identity cannot be published because of his age.