I find this almost incredible.
Bertil and Elly Jacobsson of Sweden were robbed of 18,000 kronor (about $3,000) in cash from their home. They duly reported the theft and the thieves were caught soon thereafter, with the Jacobsson’s cash in their possession.
So far, so good, you might think. The Jacobssons would now get their money back and all would be well.
Not so fast.
The four men, who were carrying around 20,000 kronor, confessed to their crimes and were later convicted, each receiving a year-long prison sentence.
“Clearly, it was our money,” said Bertil.
But rather than having their 18,000 kronor promptly returned by police, Bertil and Emily instead received some disturbing news from a representative of Sweden’s national debt collection agency, Kronofogden.
“This woman came by out of the blue and said that the thieves had over 200,000 kronor in tax debts and that we wouldn’t be seeing any of our money because it would first go toward paying down those debts,” Bertil explained.
I’m shaking my head in disbelief here. How the hell does the Swedish government get to keep the proceeds of crime like that? Isn’t that robbing the rightful owners twice over?
All I can say is, if the State tried that where I live, there’d be tarring, feathering and probably lynching going on all over the place, and any elected official trying to make such a pronouncement would be out of office – one way or another – before he’d finished speaking!
Sheesh . . .
Peter
I’m pretty sure that around here, a criminal can not make any financial gain off of a crime (that they’ve been caught at).
However, from personal experience involving my familie’s business and documented, proven theft of money by former employees, when it comes to money the victim almost never gets it back. You have to file a civil suit against the criminal, which usually ends up costing more than the lost money.
Sometimes the world just sucks.
Er, the first paragraph was supposed to have the sentance:
And repayment of a debt, to the government or anyone else, would certainly seem to be financial gain to me.
Good thing I always proofread (at least a day or so later)