CINCINNATI — An Ashland, Ky., man who robbed area banks in late 2004 and the spring and summer of 2005 was sentenced last week for those and other robberies during an appearance in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

Anthony Artrip, 36, will spend the next 27 years and three months in prison for the robbery of the Oak Hill Bank in South Point on June 3, 2005 and the robbery of the Harper Federal Bank in Ormond Beach, Fla., later that same month.

After he is released from prison, he will serve 10 years probation. U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel ordered Artrip to pay $62,985.20 in restitution and a $300 special assessment fee. This sentence will run consecutively to a seven-year sentence for escape and any sentences for crimes in other states not connected to those bank robberies.

While federal authorities only charged Artrip with the June 3 Oak Hill holdup, local officials believe Artrip was also responsible for several other local bank robberies, such as City National Bank robbery in Ironton May 23 and the U.S. Bank at Third and Jones streets in Ironton April 12.

“It was the same firearm, a stolen truck was used in each case,” Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office Detective Aaron Bollinger said. “In 2005 we were able to tie Artrip to these other bank robberies.”

Artrip was arrested by Ormond Beach police after he robbed the bank there and led police on a high-speed car chase.

Federal officials brought him back to the area to face charges here and took Artrip to the Grant County, Ky., Detention Center, in northern Kentucky. Artrip escaped from that facility June 24, 2007 and was placed on the U.S. Marshal’s 15 Most Wanted List. He was apprehended in October 2007 at a motel near Pittsburgh, Pa.