Ex-teller, 68, robbed banks to support her adult son

2/12/2009

CINCINNATI - A 68-year-old former bank teller - who was once the victim of a bank robbery herself, her husband said - is heading to prison for three years for robbing a Butler County bank.

Barbara Joyce Joly, known as "the granny robber" who stole from banks to support her adult son, faces up to 15 more years in prison when she is sentenced in Butler County Common Pleas Court, Feb. 20 for three other robberies in Warren County.

Her lawyer, Christopher Atkins, said Joly had come to grips with the fact that a prison sentence was possible even though he and other supporters had argued for probation.

Before she started robbing banks, Joly stitched quilts for the homeless, volunteered at school festivals, and regularly attended church. She and her husband also had bank accounts containing far more than the estimated $10,000 gleaned from her heists. The couple has repaid all of that money.

Joly was torn between her husband and her son, Mr. Atkins said. She had promised her husband that she would stop dipping into their retirement money.

At the same time, her son insisted he "could not go on" without more financial help from her, Mr. Atkins said.