Cherry Hill Bank Robbery Lands Man In Prison

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ — It's déjà vu all over again for a man sentenced to prison Tuesday for robbing multiple Camden County banks, including one in Cherry Hill.

Leon I. Stanford robbed two local financial institutions in February 2020 — less than two years after he finished a prison sentence for bank heists in Pennsylvania.

On Feb. 22, 2020, Stanford entered TD Bank in Oaklyn and handed the teller a note, which announced a robbery and demanded cash. Two days later, he did the same at Republic Bank in Cherry Hill. Each bank teller complied.

Stanford, 54, was sentenced to 12 years, 7 months in prison for the 2020 robberies. The Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, resident must also undergo three years of supervised release.

Witnesses saw Stanford leave both banks in a white SUV. Law enforcement obtained part of the vehicle's license plate number from surveillance videos in the area of each bank, which generated a lead to Stanford's SUV. Authorities subsequently identified him in bank surveillance footage.

He pleaded guilty to the robberies last March, facing up to 20 years in prison for each incident.

During the offenses, Stanford was on federal supervised release for his prior bank robbery convictions. In 2008, the man robbed two Wilkes Barre institutions — Citizens Bank and Choice One Federal Credit Union — in a three-day span.

Stanford was sentenced in 2010 to a decade in prison, beginning a term of federal release in August 2018.