Serial Bank Robber Sentenced to 45 Years

A serial bank robber tied to crimes in Novi was sentenced Thursday to 45 years in federal prison, after having been convicted of four counts of bank robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit bank robbery.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Arthur Payton, 45, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff in Port Huron. 

According to the release, a federal jury convicted Payton in November 2012 of recruiting heroin-addicted prostitutes to rob banks in Oakland and Wayne counties. After the FBI determined that Payton was responsible for the bank robberies, his co-defendant wore a hidden microphone and recorded Payton planning his next set of bank robberies in downtown Detroit. Payton stole approximately $8,000 from the four banks.

This was Payton's third federal conviction. He was convicted in San Diego in the mid-1990s and in Detroit in 2005 for engaging in identical schemes to use drug-addicted prostitutes to rob banks. In 1994, Payton appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show as a "bank robbing pimp", the release indicated.

“This defendant has returned to the same criminal scheme each time he has
been released from prison, preying on vulnerable women at the fringes of society to rob banks,” United States Attorney Barbara McQuade said. “This lengthy sentence was necessary because prison is the only thing that prevents him from robbing banks.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Farmington Hills Police Department, the Farmington Public Safety Department, the Livonia Police Department, and the Novi Police Department.