Crimes DOES pay: Austrian bank robber gets €63,000 of loot back

Started by Syt, October 25, 2012, 11:35:48 AM

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Syt

October 25, 2012, 11:35:48 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223073/Court-returns-51-000-stolen-cash-armed-robber-bank-insurance-firm-refuse-it.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

QuoteCrime does pay... eventually: Court returns £51,000 in stolen cash to armed robber after bank and insurance firm refuse to take it

An Austrian court has ordered a bank robber be given back £51,000 that he stole 19 years ago because they can't find anybody else to take the money.

Otto Neuman, now aged 63, was a bank manager and the ringleader of a gang that stole £150,000 as well as gold bars and gold coins 19 years ago, and by the time police found them only £51,000 and the gold could be recovered.At his trial in 1993 defended by lawyer Herbert Eichenseder, the court heard how Neuman had run into financial difficulties and had arranged, together with two friends, to stage a fake bank robbery at his own branch in order to get the money to pay off his debts.

During his trial he handed over what was left of the money stolen from the Erste Bank in Vienna's Doebling district to court officials, and it has been sitting at the Austrian Justice Ministry ever since because nobody wanted to claim it.

Herbert Eichenseder confirmed that he been contacted by court officials in May and asked to provide bank account information so that they could hand the money back to his client - who had been jailed for 3 1/2 years for the raid.

Mr Eichenseder had almost forgotten the case and had to go into the archive of his legal firm in the cellar in order to find the paperwork and track down his former client to break the news.

The lawyer who was unsure whether the court was making a mistake had first of all checked with the bank where the robbery took place, and was told by managers that what had been stolen had been paid back in full by their insurance company - and they no longer had any entitlement to the money. They therefore refused to take it.

But when he questioned the insurance company he discovered that they also felt they did not have any right to the money because the gold which had been stolen had been valued and the money for the gold paid out.

But by the time the gold had been recovered it had also substantially increased in value.

That gold was automatically the property of the insurance company as they had already compensated the bank for it, and the increasing value had been used to write off the £150,000 that they had paid to compensate the bank for the cash that was stolen.

That meant they also no longer had a deficit on their books for what had been paid, and also refused to take the money.

Mr Eichenseder said: 'I really didn't believe what the court were telling me but I checked it and it was correct.

'I had to go into the archives in our cellar to find the details of the case as it was already 19 years old - and I managed to track down the man's details and contacted him to tell him the news.

'To say that he was surprised was an understatement, but he provided his bank account details and the money has now been transferred.'

:lol:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Barrister

#1
October 25, 2012, 11:38:39 AM
:bleeding:

The money should be forfeited to the state before the crook gets it.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Syt

#2
October 25, 2012, 11:39:21 AM
I knew you would love this story.  :P
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Jacob

#4
October 25, 2012, 11:40:46 AM
And BB's reaction makes it even better  :lol:

garbon

#5
October 25, 2012, 11:46:57 AM
:D
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

DGuller

#6
October 25, 2012, 11:49:19 AM
 :hmm:  That's actually a very interesting case from the insurance perspective.  I can see how both the bank and the insurance company can't accept the money.  The bank can't accept it, because that would be double indemnity.  Insurance company can't accept it, because they can't profit from paying out on the loss.  :hmm:

DontSayBanana

#7
October 25, 2012, 11:56:35 AM
Shows just how money-grubbing a government we Yanks have got.  They probably wouldn't hesitate before seizing the money and writing it in as revenue.
Experience bij!

Zanza

#8
October 25, 2012, 12:28:10 PM
I hope he has to pay income tax on that.

Habbaku

#9
October 25, 2012, 12:50:35 PM
This may be the best story I'll read all month.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

garbon

#10
October 25, 2012, 12:51:39 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on October 25, 2012, 12:50:35 PM
This may be the best story I'll read all month.

What are you planning?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Barrister

#11
October 25, 2012, 12:53:57 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on October 25, 2012, 12:50:35 PM
This may be the best story I'll read all month.

:wacko:

You enjoy stories about crime paying off?
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Habbaku

#12
October 25, 2012, 12:57:59 PM
Quote from: Barrister on October 25, 2012, 12:53:57 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on October 25, 2012, 12:50:35 PM
This may be the best story I'll read all month.

:wacko:

You enjoy stories about crime paying off?

:wacko:

It's an amusing story, mostly for the reasons that DG has cited.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

The Brain

#13
October 25, 2012, 01:13:13 PM
Wait a minute. Is BB displeased with the law??
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Habbaku

#14
October 25, 2012, 01:19:04 PM
BB is the law.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien
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