Toccoa bank robber sentenced in federal court

Sidney Allen McCollum, of Pickens County, South Carolina, has been sentenced in US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Gainesville on charges stemming from 2021 bank robberies in Toccoa and Gainesville. 

As previously reported by WNEG News, on August 11, 2021, McCollum entered the Northeast Georgia Bank on Big A Road in Toccoa, presented a note to the bank teller demanding money, and threatened to return if there were any tracking devices or dyes in with the money.

During the investigation into the robbery, it was determined that McCollum had stolen a vehicle in South Carolina prior to the bank robbery, and used the stolen vehicle to flee from the bank after the robbery. 

McCollum was arrested in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on August 14, 2021 and In July of 2022, a Stephens County Grand Jury indicted McCollum on one count of robbery by intimidation. 

McCollum was also indicted for a bank robbery at a Wells Fargo bank in Gainesville that occurred two days after the Toccoa robbery. 

Following the arrest, Federal prosecutors picked up the case to handle in federal court, with the support of local agencies, Toccoa Chief of Police Jimmy Mize told WNEG News. 

Last week in federal court in Gainesville, McCollum was sentenced for the two counts of bank robbery and the defendant was committed into custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons for a term of 30 months for each count, to be served concurrently. Upon his release, he will be supervised for 3 years, and during the first 12 months of the supervised release, he must abide by a curfew and electronic monitoring.