PORTLAND — A Portland man involved in a high-speed chase last year that culminated in Saco was sentenced Wednesday at U.S. District Court to 14 1/2 years of prison  and five years of supervised release for armed bank robbery and conspiracy to commit bank robbery.

Neil West, 65, was handed down the sentence by Chief Judge Nancy Torresen, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

West was also ordered to serve a consecutive two-year sentence for violating conditions of supervised release.

The bank robbery and conspiracy charges arose from the September, 2015 robberies of University Credit Union  in Portland and TD Bank in Lewiston.  West was found guilty on July 28 following a jury trial.  

 According to court records, on Sept. 4, 2015, co-conspirators Joseph Richards and Crystal Default robbed the credit union and on Sept.12, Richards robbed TD Bank.

West served as the getaway driver for both robberies. The TD Bank robbery resulted in a high-speed chase which culminated in Saco. Following the chase, West and Richards were arrested. 

At the time of the robberies, West was on federal supervised release for being an accessory after the fact -to bank robbery- and for which he received a 41-month prison sentence in June 2013. His conditions of release prohibited him from committing another federal offense.
 
On Sept.14, Richards was sentenced to 15 years in prison. On Oct. 4, Dufault was sentenced to three years in prison.