London police are continuing to investigate and search for one of two suspects following a bank robbery in south London.

Police say the robbery occurred around 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the Scotia Bank branch at 639 Southdale Rd. E. near Wellington Road.

According to investigators, one male entered the bank, indicated he had a gun, and fled with cash. No weapon was seen.

A second male suspect was reportedly waiting in a GMC pickup that had been stolen from White Oaks Mall earlier in the day.

The pair were able to make off with an undisclosed amount of money, however police were able to locate the vehicle and firearm involved nearby.

A 21-year-old London man has been arrested in relation to the robbery and faces numerous charges including:

  • robbery while armed with a weapon
  • possession of property obtained by crime
  • conspiracy to commit a criminal offence
  • use firearm in commission of an offence
  • careless use of firearm
  • unauthorized possession of firearm in motor vehicle
  • possession of loaded prohibited/restricted firearm
  • breach of probation

The Robbery Unit is investigating, and the search continues for the second suspect.

"It's very concerning when we have any robberies. Having two within a few days is concerning as well," says London police Const. Ken Steeves.

But according to criminologist Mike Arntfield, bank robberies in Canada have gone down by about 50 per cent in the last three years.

And those who commit such crimes are almost always caught, eventually.

But in the age of high tech security and cameras, what makes someone believe they can get away with it?

"If someone again in 2015 is going to walk into a bank, go to the counter, make demands, produce a weapon, I mean you're talking about someone again who has a baseline risk tolerance and is quite frankly very dangerous. If they're prepared to take extraordinary steps and endanger the public knowing that there's likely a certainty eventually of being caught," says Arntfield.

The old adage, "stick to what you know" might also apply.

"We see very little criminal versatility among armed robbers, bank robbers vs. other criminal subtypes. So what happens is when someone gets a taste for this type of offending we see that in terms of recidivism they tend to go back to the same types of offending," says Arntfield.

Anyone with information on the most recent incident is asked to contact police at 519-661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.