August 4, 2013

Drug dealer accepts payment in Lego

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 10:09 am

A 34-year-old from Groningen paid for his drug addiction by stealing expensive Lego and Playmobil kits, Spitsnieuws reports.

The addict told the court his dealer accepted payment in toys. The boxes he stole from a local toy store were valued up to 190 euro a piece.

Algemeen Dagblad quotes his lawyer who explained the popularity of Lego as follows: “Lego is easy to shift. Once children have been exposed to their first brick, they’re hooked.”

The justice department demands 265 days imprisonment, of which 180 days are suspended. The papers do not say what the suspect is supposed to be addicted to.

Fueling addictions with Lego, even if they’re not addictions to Lego, could become a trend. In 2011 a 21-year-old woman from Dublin was convicted to 200 hours of community service for stealing Lego, Transformer toys and bubble bath sets to pay for her heroin addiction, Herald.ie writes.

(Photo by Sunny Ripert, some rights reserved)

Tags: , , , , ,

February 1, 2012

Major fraud case explained in court using Playmobil

Filed under: Dutch first,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:35 pm

A major real estate fraud case was recently explained in a court in Haarlem using Playmobil figurines. Although the explanation is in Dutch — starts at 1:43 — it’s quite clear even without sound.

The accused, who worked for an organisation that invests in new developments, sold a development to an investor for a much higher price than it was worth and embezzled the excess.

According to the film, three very experienced judges and two clerks worked full-time for over a year to sort the whole mess out.

The accused, now guilty of a whole bunch of crimes and off to jail, tried to walk off with 4 million euro.

I know nothing except that real estate and the construction world are riddled with fraud because space is scarce and very expensive, a reminder that the Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe and there are still not enough houses to properly house everybody.

(Link: www.rechtspraak.nl)

Tags: ,