Posted on 01/25/2005 7:21:10 PM PST by ijcr
A bank robber has been allowed to claim the £1,400 cost of the gun he used as a legitimate business expense.
The 46-year-old criminal was able to set the price of the pistol against his gross proceeds of £4,700, which he stole in the southern Dutch town of Chaam.
Jailing him for four years, the judge at Breda criminal court reduced his fine by that amount.
The Dutch prosecutors' service said yesterday that the judge had followed sound legal precedents.
Leendert De Lange, a spokesman, said: "You can compare criminal acts to normal business activities, where you must invest to make profits, and thus you have costs."
Therefore drug dealers would be within their rights to claim the cost of a car used to ferry the drugs around, he said.
However, Mr De Lange scoffed at the hypothetical example of a drugs dealer claiming his Ferrari against the proceeds of his crimes.
"No, he would have to prove that he needed the car to transport the drugs and I hardly think he would transport them in a Ferrari."
Well, they did get Al Capone on tax evasion in the end, after all.
I beg to differ, Mr De Lange, most drug dealers transport in Ferraris! Everyone knows that!
Are you sure about the URL? This sounds more like www.scrappleface.com.
Mr. Bumble was right, the law is an ass!
"No, he would have to prove that he needed the car to transport the drugs and I hardly think he would transport them in a Ferrari."
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Leaving aside the decision as a whole, which appears worthy of our 9th Circuit, isn't £1,400 rather pricey for a bank-robber's pistol?
THE ULTIMATE IN STUPIDITY
Truth is stranger than fiction ping....Anna, you will love this logic.
"You can compare criminal acts to normal business activities, where you must invest to make profits, and thus you have costs."
More Euro-stupidity.
None of the drug dealers I've ever known drove Ferrari's.....
They all drove the rather low end cars.
All of the drug dealers I've ever known are also dead.
"You can compare criminal acts to normal business activities
How can ANYONE , even slightly sane ,think that ?
Their heirs could probably sue the federal government for unsafe workplace conditions.
Of course you know what would happen if a shop owner tried to take that deduction.
I'm speechless........
VAT strikes again. Personally, as an ax murderer, I'm all for this - now I can deduct all my ax-related expenses.
I bet OJ is mad he didn't get to take it.
So if, as a drug dealer, you need to kill your rivals, you can now deduct your "hit man" expenses. Is this a great country, or what?
Yea, Ferrari doesn't exactly scream 'low profile' ...
A funny side note, before he got busted, one of my friends was netting around $3k a week selling pot (college student), and when he finally got popped a year and a half later, all he had to show for it was an X-box and 12 games.
Yeah. You wouldn't want to be caught using a cheap axe, f'Petessake. You get audited, you wanna admit to the IRS lady that you're using a stainless steel Chinese knockoff? I don't think so.
I'd believe anything that happens on main land Europe.
Wouldn't happen in Ireland, mind you.
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