Serial Bank Robber Moonlights as Crime Novelist. Police Say He Just Struck Again — and Fled in Rolls-Royce

A serial bank robber who spends his free time writing crime novels is accused of striking another bank in Detroit, authorities allege.

A criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE show Dorian Trevor Sykes, 41, who previously spent 20 years in federal prison for helping steal almost $200,000 from Fifth Third Bank with a partner in 2002, now faces charges of bank robbery and incidental crimes.

Sykes is the author of eight crime novels all set in his hometown of Detroit. Sykes’ most recent book Born to Die, is set to be released in May. 

“During the time of his lengthy incarceration, he penned several highly notable street novels, including his Going All Out trilogy,” Sykes’ author biography on Barnes & Noble’s website reads. “Currently residing in Detroit, Mr. Sykes is constantly working to give the readers new hot material.”

According to the criminal complaint, Sykes is accused of stealing over $10,000 from Credit Union One and days later, $3,400 from a Chase Bank. 

On March 6, at 11:50 a.m., Sykes allegedly entered Credit Union One in Sterling Heights, and gave the teller counter a piece of paper that the teller couldn’t read. He allegedly then stated “This is a robbery,” and demanded the teller give him “big bills,” according to a criminal complaint.

On March 12, at 4:40 p.m., Sykes allegedly entered a Chase Bank branch in Lathrup Village and gave the bank teller a note that said, “Give me all the money…I have a gun… I will kill everyone in here,” according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint alleges that after the robbery, Sykes fled in a “Rolls Royce SUV.”

Per the Detroit News, Sykes had asked to serve as his own lawyer and was ordered to be held temporarily without bond. PEOPLE was not able to immediately reach him.

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At the time of the alleged incidents, Sykes was on federal supervised release from a bank heist in 2020, where he was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for robbing a Citizen’s Bank and a Comerica Bank.

U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider and Assistant U.S. Attorney wrote in the sentencing memo for that case that they believed he couldn’t be rehabilitated. 

“While a lengthy term of incarceration may serve to deter others, the unfortunate lesson gleaned from Syke’s history is that incarceration is not a deterrent for him,” they wrote in the memo.

In a handwritten note to Paul Borman, a judge in Michigan, Sykes wrote that at a young age, he was “thrust into the pits of the most violent prisons across America,” where he felt rehabilitation was the last thing on prison official’s minds. 

“Although the defendant made it out of prison alive… it was not without injury,” Sykes wrote, referring to himself. “The defendant left prison physiologically scarred and unable to adapt to the changes of society.”