Man Pleads Guilty To Fleet Bank Robbery

By Andrew Gorosko

The man who robbed a local Fleet Bank branch office in April 2004 has pleaded guilty to that crime, as well as to 27 other bank robberies, many of which occurred during the spring and summer of 2004.

Michael Gola, 33, formerly of New Britain, waived indictment and pleaded guilty on February 22 in US District Court in Hartford to robbing 15 banks in Connecticut, two banks in New York, five banks in Massachusetts, three banks in New Jersey, and three banks in Rhode Island.

On the morning of Tuesday, April 27, 2004, in a low-key bank robbery, during which the people within Fleet Bank were unaware of what was happening, Gola stole cash from a female bank teller there and then quietly slipped out the front door of the 6 Queen Street building, eluding capture.

That building is now a Bank of America branch office. The bank, which faces Queen Street, is in Newtown Shopping Village.

Police happened to be in the area at the time of the bank robbery and responded swiftly, but the bank robber got away.

Gola had uneventfully entered Fleet Bank and handed a middle-aged female teller a note stating that he had a gun and indicating that the teller should hand over money to him. No weapon was shown during the incident. There were no injuries.

“It was not a situation that drew attention,” police said at the time. Most of the about ten people in the bank during the incident were bank staffers.

According to court documents, Gola stole $411 from Fleet Bank.

In each of the robberies, Gola entered a bank and handed a teller a note in which he demanded money in large denominations. The notes stated that Gola had a gun, although he never brandished a weapon, according to a statement from Kevin J. O’Connor, the United States Attorney for Connecticut.

Police arrested Gola in the summer of 2004.

Gola, who admitted in court that he committed the bank robberies while addicted to prescription narcotics, obtained more than $54,000 from the robberies, according to Mr O’Connor. The plea agreement that Gola reached with federal prosecutors requires him to make full restitution to each of the 28 robbed banks.

Sentencing in the case is scheduled for May 10, at which time Gola will face a maximum prison term of 20 years and a maximum fine of $250,000 for each of the 28 bank robbery counts. Gola is expected to receive some lesser sentence under the terms of the plea agreement.

Besides Newtown, other towns in Connecticut where Gola robbed banks include: New Britain, West Hartford, Bridgeport, Windsor, Mystic, Mansfield, Darien, Plainville, Cromwell, Bristol, and Westbrook.

“In recent years, the number of bank robberies in Connecticut has been on the rise. These crimes not only injure banking institutions and their customers, but also pose a grave risk to public safety. Consequently, this office will continue to prosecute [bank robbers] to the fullest extent under the law,” Mr O’Connor said in a statement.

The most recent local bank robbery occurred last November 14, when three men holding long-barreled firearms entered the Western Connecticut Federal Credit Union, a private bank at 15 Berkshire Road (Route 34) in Sandy Hook, and threatened violence, demanding cash, after which they made off with an undisclosed amount of money. That crime remains unsolved.