Haverhill Career Criminal to Serve Five Years of Probation for 2017 Bank Robbery

File photograph. (Image licensed by Ingram Image.)

Gregory Carter was sentenced to five years of probation in federal court Tuesday, one year after he entered a Boston Santander Bank and demanded cash. (File photograph)

A Haverhill man, sentenced to prison 10 times since 1974, will serve five years of probation for his role in a March 2017 Santander Bank robbery in Boston.

Sixty-one-year-old Gregory Carter donned a black hat, ski mask, sunglasses and blue latex gloves when he entered the Commonwealth Avenue bank and slipped the teller a note that he had a gun. At the time of the 2017 Santander incident, Carter—who made away with $6,127 before fleeing—was on federal supervised release stemming from a 2003 bank robbery conviction. He had received a 151-month federal prison sentence for that crime, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling’s office.

Police used surveillance footage to link Carter to the Santander robbery, and he pleaded guilty to one count of unarmed bank robbery in August 2017. On Tuesday, U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel sentenced Carter to five years of probation and ordered him to pay more than $6,100 in restitution.

His sentence varied greatly from the 151 months in prison the government had recommended.