An insurance agent with Prudential Financial Services in Manhattan avoided jail time, but must repay $5,900 from a New York bank he admitted to robbing in January.
Edward Martin Solomon, 71, pleaded guilty to felony third-degree robbery and was released from a Westchester County jail where he spent the last three months, according to the Lower Hudson Journal. Solomon was arrested shortly after the robbery of a Trustco bank branch in Peekskill, N.Y., after a witness recognized the Lexus SUV he used to flee from the bank.
According to media reports, Solomon, wearing a partial disguise, including Groucho Marx-style glasses, used a knife to hold up the bank on the morning of Jan. 16, just minutes after it opened. Police traced the license plate to his Ossining home and he was arrested five days later at his Manhattan office.
In exchange for his guilty plea, Solomon will be supervised by the county department of probation for the next 10 months and must repay what he stole in monthly installments, according to the report.
If Solomon fails to follow the rules of the agreement, he could be sentenced to one to three years in state prison.
As for a motive for the crime, none was made clear. A 17-year-old grandson of Solomon had committed suicide a month before the bank robbery and a former lawyer told the Journal that the Solomon family leased their cars and that their Ossining ranch-style home was “heavily mortgaged.”


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