Unless you are a banker or a politician, we all know that crime doesn’t pay. The authorities will get you in the end and one day you will come a cropper!
No one wants to be the victim of a crime (and I have been on a few occasions) no matter how small. It can have devastating consequences on the individual concerned and be a traumatic, life- changing experience.
However, there are sometimes certain crimes that are so clever, so audacious, so daring and bold you almost have to admire them. Crimes so out there only a cinematic criminal mastermind could have thought up and which leave you grinning from ear to ear.
Crimes such as the jewellery heist at London’s Hatton Garden.
I know, I know I shouldn’t condone what they did, and to be perfectly clear, if it was my box that was rifled, I’d be doing my dinger! But let’s face it, this robbery had all the hallmarks of a criminal genius. And, more importantly, no one was hurt, except maybe those uninsured tax avoiding individuals who lost their rainy day rocks.
It was brilliant in its conception, its planning and execution and completely stunned the Met, whose response (or rather complete lack of it when the alarm was triggered) makes Inspector Clouseau look like Sherlock!
Then we have the case of convicted fraudster Neil Moore who was on remand for duping major firms out of £1.8 million. Fed up with his incarceration he acquired a mobile phone and set up a web site that duplicated the Royal Courts of Justice. He then posed as a court clerk and sent an email to Wansdworth jail telling them that he had been granted bail and should be released immediately. And they did just that!
Brilliant! You can just imagine him sitting in his cell, shouting at the prison staff: “Has any mail arrived for me yet? Are you sure?”
This modern day Catch Me If You Can villain was nabbed, but instead of praising his ingenuity and recommending he be given employment with MI5 the judge spat his dummy out and jailed him for seven years because he made a mockery of the legal system.
Some murderers don’t even get that!
Finally we have trader Navinder Singh Saroe. He is accused of causing The £570 billion Wall Street ‘Flash Crash’ in 2010 from his mum’s house in Hounslow. It is further alleged that his computer trickery has personally made him £27 million which he has now hidden. The FBI want him to face the music over in the States and see that he’s banged up for a ridiculous 380 years!
You sort of wish he finds the secret fountain of youth before he’s sent away to rot, don’t you? Imagine what £27 million will be worth 380 years from now.
Still what a stupid sentence to even threaten, let alone give out, even 10 years would be too much. He has computer talents verging on genius (once making £550,00 in five minutes) talents which could be put to better use protecting the stock exchange from future attack.
I said at the beginning that crime doesn’t pay, but for a clever few and for a short time at least (and here I’m referring to those who carried out the Hatton Garden heist) it seems that it might. But one thing is certain.
Clever, creative and ingenious crimes that involve large sums of institutional money or which threaten our crusty establishment seem to be treated far more severely by our courts than those which don’t.
And that, in my view, is nothing short of criminal.
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