UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. No. 95-5628 GREGORY TATES, a/k/a Chilly, Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore.

Walter E. Black, Jr., Senior District Judge. (CR-95-33-B) Submitted: August 22, 1996 Decided: September 12, 1996 Before RUSSELL, HALL, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges. _________________________________________________________________ Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. _________________________________________________________________ COUNSEL James K. Bredar, Federal Public Defender, Beth M. Farber, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant.

Lynne A. Battaglia, United States Attorney, Joseph L. Evans, Assis- tant United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. _________________________________________________________________ Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c).

OPINION PER CURIAM: Gregory Tates pled guilty to bank robbery, 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113(a) (West Supp. 1996), armed bank robbery, 18 U.S.C.A.§ 2113(d) (West Supp. 1996), and use of a firearm during a crime of violence, 18 U.S.C.A. § 924(c) (West Supp. 1996). He appeals his 270-month sentence, arguing that the district court erred in finding that he was a career offender. United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual § 4B1.1 (Nov. 1994). We affirm.

Tates had committed two prior bank robberies, one on December 8, 1980, and one on April 6, 1981. He was sentenced for both offenses at the same time and received concurrent sentences. Because there was no formal order of consolidation, the district court treated these cases as unrelated and counted them separately. See USSG § 4A1.2(a)(2), comment. (n.3). In doing so, the court followed our decision in United States v. Allen, 50 F.3d 294 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 63 U.S.L.W. 3907 (U.S. June 26, 1995) (No. 94-9414).

Allen holds that, absent a formal order of consolidation, factually unrelated cases which are sentenced together are not related cases under the sentencing guidelines. Under Allen, Tates was properly sen- tenced as a career offender.

Tates contends on appeal the Allen was wrongly decided and urges us to reconsider its holding. Even if we were inclined to do so, a panel cannot overrule the decision of a prior panel in this circuit. Brubaker v. City of Richmond, 943 F.2d 1363, 1381-82 (4th Cir. 1991). We therefore affirm the sentence. The government's motion to submit the case on the briefs is granted because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argu- ment would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED