• Boss forced to pay compensation for thief.
    83 replies, posted
[quote]Mark Gilbert, 40, sued over the “distress” caused when he was paraded through the streets of Witham, Essex, with a hand-made cardboard sign saying: “THIEF. I stole £845 am on my way to the police station.” His boss, Simon Cremer, took him to the police station after discovering that the father-of-three had written a company cheque to himself and attempted to cash it in October 2008. Gilbert admitted the crime and was given a caution. Mr Cremer was taken to court for false imprisonment, which carries a possible life sentence, before the case against him collapsed. Now Mr Cremer, 47, who runs a flooring firm, has had to pay £5,000 in compensation and £8,000 legal costs to Gilbert. He said: “I think it’s absolutely disgusting that he was even able to sue me after he had stolen from me. “I don’t want to give him a penny after what he did, so it really sticks in my throat. He stole from me yet he is the one who is walking away with the money.” Gilbert sued for two years’ lost earnings and the “distress” he suffered. His claim had been for the trauma, distress and psychological help he said he needed after the incident.[/quote][quote][B]“This has left me with no faith in the justice system, absolutely none.”[/B][/quote][IMG]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01827/ma_1827023c.jpg[/IMG] [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8327528/13000-for-thief-who-was-frogmarched-to-police-by-his-boss.html"]Source[/URL]
[QUOTE=WeekendWarrior;28088399]“This has left me with no faith in the justice system, absolutely none.”[/QUOTE]
[quote]Gilbert sued for two years’ lost earnings and the “distress” he suffered.[/quote] He's a thief.. what lost earnings?
This guy actually profited from committing a crime? This is bullshit.
Shouldn't have paraded him around town. Replace the prisons with rehab centers. If they're committing crime, there's something internally "wrong" with them that should be fixed. Prisons do nothing, [i]nothing[/i], except attempt to get revenge and their only deterrent to crime lies in scare tactics.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;28088507]Shouldn't have paraded him around town.[/QUOTE] The guy's a thief, he's lucky that's all he did. And 5,000 pounds? That's ridiculous.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;28088507]Shouldn't have paraded him around town.[/QUOTE] Yeah the owner really didn't have any right to do that.
What a fucking dick. First he steals from his boss, then he has the audacity to say it caused him 'distress' and win a load of compensation? However, the boss was at fault for parading him around like that, but still. Shitty justice system at work.
Although the £13,000 fine seems excessive, the fact is that our justice system is based around people being punished according to the law, and for that to work the law has to stop people punishing criminals themselves like this guy was doing.
He should have just gone to the police. Nothing was gained from parading him through the town.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;28088507]Shouldn't have paraded him around town. Replace the prisons with rehab centers. If they're committing crime, there's something internally "wrong" with them that should be fixed. Prisons do nothing, [i]nothing[/i], except attempt to get revenge and their only deterrent to crime lies in scare tactics.[/QUOTE] Not true, A corrections center with no inherent "Rehabilitation" is rehabilitating in its own right. I.E. I got busted stealing. I spent 5 years in jail. Jail sucks and now I'm butthurt. I have no desire to go back to jail. I am afraid of stealing. Works.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;28088507]Shouldn't have paraded him around town. Replace the prisons with rehab centers. If they're committing crime, there's something internally "wrong" with them that should be fixed. Prisons do nothing, [i]nothing[/i], except attempt to get revenge and their only deterrent to crime lies in scare tactics.[/QUOTE] they remove them from the general population
[QUOTE=dirty harry;28088575]He should have just gone to the police. Nothing was gained from parading him through the town.[/QUOTE] He didn't really parade him around, he just put a sign on him on the way to the police station.
[QUOTE=dirty harry;28088575]He should have just gone to the police. Nothing was gained from parading him through the town.[/QUOTE] It's a great idea if you don't think about the consequences. [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9104987/onmeth.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=dogmachines;28088598]He didn't really parade him around, he just put a sign on him on the way to the police station.[/QUOTE] Which would be a valid way to make sure no one stopped you as you were manhandling an "Apparently" innocent guy down the street.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;28088507]Shouldn't have paraded him around town. Replace the prisons with rehab centers. If they're committing crime, there's something internally "wrong" with them that should be fixed. Prisons do nothing, [i]nothing[/i], except attempt to get revenge and their only deterrent to crime lies in scare tactics.[/QUOTE] Prisons should be mixed in with rehabilitation. Purely Rehab centers would do nothing to deter people
bring back name and shame please
Wow. This is actually a pretty biased story. The £845 he "admitted to stealing" was a cheque he wrote to himself that he felt he was entitled to because his boss was behind on wages. He was given a caution because the case collapsed and it was discovered he WAS owed wages, he had actually paid the money back too. Pause and think for a second, do you really think someone who had actually intended to steal money would let someone make a sign, put it round his neck and walk him through town? That's the action of someone who is scared and doesn't know how to fix this.
I don't think you should be able to use "distress" as a reason for suing someone without going through a psychological evaluation from 3 different psychologists, and having at least 2 of the 3 say that he was effected by the incident. He should have also had to have gone through some kind of therapy if it's so distressful.. You can use the excuse "distress" for just about anything and make a ton of money off of it. [quote]“I went in my local pub and felt a cold shoulder. I wanted to face people, to deal with it face on." “I probably deserved it for what I did, fair enough, but I paid the money back.”[/quote] You felt a cold shoulder because you tried to steal $800 from your work, then say you "paid back" the money you stole, only because you were forced to pay it back. [QUOTE=Cluckyx;28088836]Wow. This is actually a pretty biased story. The £845 he "admitted to stealing" was a cheque he wrote to himself that he felt he was entitled to because his boss was behind on wages. He was given a caution because the case collapsed and it was discovered he WAS owed wages.[/QUOTE] That's what courts are for. You don't go behind your managers back and write a check to yourself. You take him to court and make them pay you what you're owed, along with the legal costs.
[QUOTE=NecroTitan;28088584]Not true, A corrections center with no inherent "Rehabilitation" is rehabilitating in its own right. I.E. I got busted stealing. I spent 5 years in jail. Jail sucks and now I'm butthurt. I have no desire to go back to jail. I am afraid of stealing. Works.[/QUOTE] Except it doesn't work very well.
[QUOTE=krakadict;28088738]bring back name and shame please[/QUOTE] The threat of public humiliation is a far greater deterrent then many prisons.
[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;28088877]The threat of public humiliation is a far greater deterrent then many prisons.[/QUOTE] Exactly
[QUOTE=LittleDogX;28088837] That's what courts are for. You don't go behind your managers back and write a check to yourself. You take him to court and make them pay you what you're owed, along with the legal costs.[/QUOTE] Agreed, that's what courts are for. In the same way you don't take it upon yourself to march someone through town with a sign around their neck. For the same reason. What he did was fucking stupid no doubt. But so was the reaction.
[QUOTE=dogmachines;28088598]He didn't really parade him around, he just put a sign on him on the way to the police station.[/QUOTE] why do you think his arms are behind his back like that?
[QUOTE=dogmachines;28088598]He didn't really parade him around, he just put a sign on him on the way to the police station.[/QUOTE] Still should have let the authorities take care of it. [QUOTE=NecroTitan;28088664]Which would be a valid way to make sure no one stopped you as you were manhandling an "Apparently" innocent guy down the street.[/QUOTE] He shouldn't really have been taking him to the police station himself like that in the first place, and considering hadn't yet been found guilty he was in the wrong to brand him a criminal in front of everyone he saw on the way to the police station.
[quote="Roger Smith - Director of JUSTICE"]"It is not an airy-fairy thing, human rights," said Mr Smith. "We ignore the due process of law at our peril because it will come back to bite us if we do not get it right." He added: "The police are there to investigate and the state prosecutes. If people are not happy about the way cases are investigated and prosecuted they can and should complain. "But we don't want a society where people take responsibility for doing that sort of thing themselves. [/quote]
[QUOTE=Cluckyx;28088910]Agreed, that's what courts are for. In the same way you don't take it upon yourself to march someone through town with a sign around their neck. For the same reason. What he did was fucking stupid no doubt. But so was the reaction.[/QUOTE] I see no problem with the sign on the neck. It's not like the sign was lying. He stole $800. That's what the sign said. That's what he did. Even if the sign wasn't there, he still stole $800. The big deal is that now people know that he did it, but who is at fault in that situation? The store owner? No. He is the one that stole the money. He is the one that got caught doing it. I'm not saying that a person has to forever live with a sign saying "I stole" if they did, but I don't think you should be able to sue someone for telling other people that he stole money. If I went to where he lived, and told everyone in his new town that he stole $800, does that mean he could sue me too? Also, the usage of "false imprisonment" here is stupid as he was taking him to the police center. He didn't lock him in his basement for 3 weeks. I know that charge was dropped, but it's still stupid it was even brought up in the first place.
[QUOTE=LittleDogX;28089004]I see no problem with the sign on the neck. It's not like the sign was lying. He stole $800. That's what the sign said. That's what he did. Even if the sign wasn't there, he still stole $800. The big deal is that now people know that he did it, but who is at fault in that situation? The store owner? No. He is the one that stole the money. He is the one that got caught doing it.[/QUOTE] Wait do you think he got caught with his hand in a cash register or something? I think you had better reread the story. [QUOTE=LittleDogX;28089004] Also, the usage of "false imprisonment" here is stupid as he was taking him to the police center. He didn't lock him in his basement for 3 weeks. I know that charge was dropped, but it's still stupid it was even brought up in the first place.[/QUOTE] False Imprisonment was dropped by the judge to bring "proportionality" to the case. But he tied his damn hands behind his back, that's certainly heading that way. Don't get me wrong here. I agree that what the guy did was wrong. BUT I also believe that what the company owner did was wrong. Incredibly wrong, and it's frustrating that a number of paper articles are conveniently missing out a number of important facts that cause people to draw conclusions like yours.
I'm fairly certain that you can't sue for mental 'distress'- only for medically diagnosed mental harm. Once more it seems much more likely that the compensation would have been for the false imprisonment and parading him around the town. Also Torygraph.
The thief was a dick, but the boss was an even bigger dick for parading him around town. Also FYI, the £13k was an out-of-court settlement.
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