Far Rockaway man pleads guilty in Five Towns bank heists

Leroy Scott was look out in Cedarhurst and Hewlett

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A Far Rockaway pleaded guilty to being the lookout for a group of five armed robbers who stole more than $70,000 from four banks last year, including two in the Five Towns.

Leroy Scott, 28, faces serving a maximum sentence of 25 years for armed bank robbery, robbery and from seven years to life for a firearms charge. The plea was made at the federal courthouse in Central Islip on Oct. 9.

A TD Bank in Cedarhurst on Aug. 7 was robbed of $6,750, $12,000 from Bridgehampton National Bank in Hewlett on Aug. 21, $2,200 from Roslyn Savings Bank in Valley Stream on July 14 and more than $50,000 from a Queens County Savings Bank in Fresh Meadows on Sept. 20, officials had said.

Scott was the lookout for Pedro Benitez, 21, also of Far Rockaway, who was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months, three years of supervised release and must pay $71.395 of court-ordered restitution. Benitez entered each bank with a gun and ordered employees to the ground and demanded money.

Getaway driver Troy Tavares, 22, another Far Rockaway resident, waited outside. He faces the identical sentence as Scott and also must help pay restitution. Scott also admitted to being part of the planning and serving as a lookout for two other robberies in Nassau County. That group also stole money from a Queens bank. He is also the last of the five men involved in the four bank robberies to plead guilty.