Making crime pay
Woensdag 26 Januari 2005 at 7:38 pm. En we hebben het buitenlandse nieuws weer gehaald.... (Sydney Morning Herald)A bank robber has been allowed to claim the cost of a pistol used in a hold-up as a legitimate business expense.
A Dutch court has permitted the 46-year-old man to set the ?2000 ($3400) cost of the gun against his gross proceeds of ?6750, gained during his raid on a bank in the southern town of Chaam. The judge at Breda Criminal Court duly reduced his fine by the same amount, while sentencing him to four years in jail. In a timely boost for the Netherlands' image as a bastion of liberal extremism - dented recently by spiralling racial tensions - a spokesman for the Dutch prosecutors' service said the judge had followed sound legal precedents on the confiscation of criminal assets. [....]Gerard Sta, national director of the Office of Criminal Assets, told the Dutch newspaper De Standaard [sic]of other strict conditions: a criminal's costs must be directly related to the crime, and not just day-to-day expenses. 'A second condition is that the criminal offence must be carried out,' Mr Sta said.
Mr De Lange said: 'The idea is that crime does not pay, but you are allowed to claim your expenses.'
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