Bag's Rants

At last. Compensation to a victim. But, wait...

I came across this article where a victim of a crime was being repaid by selling the proceeds of the criminal, in this case an Elvis collection was being sold off to repay the victim.

Great! About time this happened. Then I actual read it a little and then thought 'Typical!'. It seems that the criminal stole from a council car parking scheme and the money is to repay that. Read more here.

Why is it that if you are Government you can get this sort of response? Drug dealers get their assets confiscated, tax avoiders get their assets confiscated, council swindlers get their assets confiscated but when the victim is Joe Public and not a Government body they get virtually nothing back. Plus to make matters worse they have to give up their time to go to court and don't get fully compensated for that. Unless they are on the dole of course. Government people go on the our time. Joe Public get screwed all the time.

In this case if you dig down a little and think about it, the tax payers have bought this property with their own money and are being charged to use it. An issue where I currently live that pisses people off. It is one of the things that I hate. You buy it via a central resource, the council, and then are charged to use it by them as an income for them to fund other activities. In which case, IMO, one thief stole it from someone who gained it immorally. Interesting concept, who is the real bad guy? Something for another time.

Is it not about time that if criminal damage, theft, whatever is done to us, the public, and the perpetrator has goods or funds we get compensation to the full level instead of being a victim twice? How many times do you read of thousands of pounds of damage and a paltry £250 compensation if any? That is partly why insurance is so high and the right crime, not against a Government body, does pay.

posted by Bag @ 11:25 am