'Bank-robbing pimp' sentenced to 45 years

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DETROIT, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A man who appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" has been sentenced in Michigan to 45 years in prison for using prostitutes to rob banks.

November marked the third time Arthur Payton, 45, has been convicted for the scheme, The Detroit News reported. The 45-year prison sentence was announced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff.

"This defendant has returned to the same criminal scheme each time he has been released from prison, preying on vulnerable women at the fringes of society to rob banks," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said. "This lengthy sentence was necessary because prison is the only thing that prevents him from robbing banks."

Payton was convicted last year on four counts of bank robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit bank robbery, the News said. Payton was convicted in the 1990s in San Diego and in Detroit in 2005 for using the same method to rob banks.

After the first conviction, Payton wrote to Winfrey and later appeared on her show as a "bank-robbing pimp" with three of his female recruits.