A woman will serve 15 years in federal prison for her role in bank robberies in Virginia and Vermont. She was caught after a teller slipped a GPS device into a money bag during one of the heists.
Amber Fusco, 30, was sentenced this week in federal court in Virginia to the 15-year-prison term plus five years of supervised release on the bank robbery convictions, according court records.
According to authorities, Fusco was involved in a total of five bank robberies between December 2017 and January 2018 — three in Vermont and two in Virginia.
One of the bank robberies in Vermont took place at the North Country Federal Credit Union branch in Alburgh. While the case was prosecuted in the federal system in Virginia, Grand Isle State’s Attorney Douglas DiSabito said he been contact with authorities handling the case.
According to DiSabito, as part of the resolution of the case, Fusco was required to write a letter of apology to the employees of the Alburgh bank and pay restitution of $4,700 to the financial institution.
DiSabito said he personally hand-delivered that apology letter to the bank a few weeks ago.
“Ms. Fusco’s behavior was outrageous,” DiSabito said in the release, adding that such “brazen” criminal actions would continue to met with the “severest” of punishments.
A co-defendant in the case, Jennifer Bessette, 34, accused of being the getaway driver in some of the robberies, was recently sentenced in federal court in Virginia to seven and a half years in prison.
In one of the Virginia robberies, authorities said Fusco handed the clerk a note reading, “I need all large bills. I have a gun and will use it. You have 30 seconds.” The teller complied, handing over more than $4,400 along with a GPS tracking device, court records state.
Authorities said they were eventually able to catch up to a vehicle thanks to the GPS device, leading to the arrest and charges against Fusco and Bessette.
Correction: The apology note to Alburgh bank was delivered by Douglas DiSabito, not Amber Fusco.
