Jeffrey James Shuman, known as "The Vaulter" for his brazen bank-robbery tactics, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and slapped with a restitution order to the tune of nearly $450,000.

The sentence was handed down Tuesday after a years-long attempt to bring Shuman to justice.

Police said at the time he was wanted in connection with 21 bank robberies between 2010 and 2015 — 15 in the Greater Toronto Area, four in Calgary and one each in Hamilton and Ottawa.

Shuman had pleaded guilty to seven counts of robbery using a firearm for robberies that occurred in the GTA and Ottawa. He will also be prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition for the rest of his life.

"I find that this sentence will strongly communicate this Court's abhorrence of bank robberies," Justice Cindy Johnston wrote in her decision. "It denounces this conduct for the harm that it causes to individual victims, to banks and to the wider community."

The dual American and French citizen was arrested in Geneva in September 2015 and extradited to Canada in February 2016.

Johnston read out an agreed statement of facts in court Tuesday that included details of the seven robberies Shuman pleaded guilty to, including three in which he vaulted the bank counter, brandished a handgun and demanded money.

In other robberies, Shuman approached bank employees as they were unlocking the bank's front doors in the morning, brandished a handgun, demanded to be taken to the vault and then fled with a quantity of cash.

In the last of the seven heists that were part of his plea, on May 8, 2015, Shuman approached a TD bank location in Mississauga dressed as a construction worker. While holding a handgun, he demanded that three employees who were unlocking the front doors go into the bank and take him inside the vault. He ordered them to face the wall and drop to their knees. After a search of the night depository, Shuman took the employees' cellphones and removed more than $168,000 in Canadian funds, more than US$75,000 and some British pounds and euros.

It was at this heist that Shuman left clues that allowed investigators to identify him as their suspect and crack the case. He left behind a black binder and pen that included a fingerprint and a DNA sample.

"It was a shocking case in terms of the length of time it took to identify the person," Const. Laura Nicolle, of York Regional Police, told CBC Toronto on Wednesday.

"It was a surprise that he wasn't identified more quickly but obviously that was due to the circumstances of him residing elsewhere."

York police issued an international arrest warrant and on Sept. 15, 2015, Shuman was arrested in Geneva. York police took him into custody on Feb. 23, 2016 and boarded a plane to Canada. During the flight, Shuman claimed to be suffering from a heart attack and the plane landed in London. Once doctors said he was not, in fact, having a heart attack, he was put on another flight days later.

"The defendant's conduct was so disruptive at Heathrow, it led the commercial airlines to deny him permission to board their aircrafts," Johnston wrote in her decision. She later called the incident "a clear attempt to evade responsibility."

Shuman, now aged 55, has been in custody since he arrived in Canada on Feb. 28, 2016.

In her ruling, Johnston noted that the robberies were "part of a series" that occurred over several years and were carefully planned, and that Shuman "intimidated the bank employees" by brandishing a firearm, even though it only turned out to be a pellet pistol.

Johnston highlighted the harm Shuman inflicted on bank employees, noting that one of them, Donna Richards, wrote in a victim-impact statement about wondering whether she would die after Shuman asked her and her colleagues to face the vault wall. Richards sought therapy, had trouble sleeping and would self-medicate and use alcohol in order to fall asleep.

The judge also noted Shuman's history of robbing banks, including 14 in Florida and Tennessee in 1992 and 1993, which netted him more than US$125,000. In 1995, he was sentenced to 145 months in prison and was released on March 1, 2004.

Rather than stealing to fund a substance-abuse problem, Johnston noted, "the Defendant appears to have robbed these banks to live a relatively luxurious lifestyle."

When he was arrested, Shuman was renting an apartment in France in which 100,000 euros were found. He had also bought a Rolex at Yorkdale Mall for more than $11,000. The court ordered that Shuman forfeit the euros and Rolex.

"It would appear not to be in dispute that each of Mr. Shuman's trips to Canada during the relevant time period were for the singular purpose of carrying out bank robberies," Johnston said. "Mr. Shuman has no other ties to Canada."

Johnston did note that Shuman pleaded guilty, saving court resources and sparing bank employees further trauma, the robberies did not include "gratuitous violence" and that Shuman agreed to forfeit the euros and Rolex.

Nicolle noted that when people think of a bank robbery, most of their attention goes to the monetary value of stolen goods.

"There are also a number of people involved who have gone through a very traumatic experience when something like that occurs. It's a challenge to feel safe after you've been through an experience like that," she said.

"To be able to catch the bad guy, that's what we're all here for."