A Strange Case

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Tony Summerfield
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A Strange Case

Post by Tony Summerfield »

On our local news about a week ago, there was an item about a couple who had had their £30 thousand pound caravan stolen. They reported it to the police who traced it to a travellers' site where a family were living in it. They had bought it from a man in a pub for £300. The police withdrew from the case saying there was nothing they could do as they would be infringing the human rights of the family now living in it.

Ironically the couple who it had been stolen from are still paying for it and because of this they can't afford to take a civil case to court. Surely sometimes the law is laughable! :roll:
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Lucky Star
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Lucky Star »

Having grown up in an area where travellers were a constant prescence I will bet my teeth that the family now living in the caravan are the people who stole it. Travellers are extremely clever and have no scruples whatsoever about appropriating someone else's property.
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Carlotta King
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Post by Carlotta King »

So what the police are saying is that never mind the poor people who had their things stolen - the burglars must be considered and protected. Unbelievable. :shock:

I'd quite like a bigger house than where I live, perhaps I'll go out tomorrow and find a nice big country house somewhere and move in while the owner is out, they won't be able to chuck me out because it will be an infringement of my human rights :roll: :)
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by deepeabee »

Presumably the police are thinking of squatters rights, but wasn't the law changed recently? :?
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Post by Julie2owlsdene »

Carlotta King wrote:
I'd quite like a bigger house than where I live, perhaps I'll go out tomorrow and find a nice big country house somewhere and move in while the owner is out, they won't be able to chuck me out because it will be an infringement of my human rights :roll: :)
You've summed it up nicely, Carlotta. The law has always been on the side of the criminal in this country.

I heard about this couple's flight on Daybreak just last week. They were being interviewed. A solicitor was on the programme with them and explained they could take it to court, but as mentioned what with, fresh air. This government has tighted up on 'legal aid', and so the chances of them getting to court is none existent.

It's scandalous the way the law and this government treats it's hard working people!!

8)
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Katharine »

Locally travellers have been in the press quite a bit recently, just turning up and setting up 'home' in local beauty spots. They are usually left where they are for a few days before they move on of their own accord, then someone has to foot the bill to clean up after them. The most recent case was a week ago when they set up camp on a local playing field. The local paper featured a picture of a council worker walking around picking up all the rubbish that had been left behind.

I know I'm not the most tidy of people, but I always make sure I leave nothing behind but footprints whenever I go out anywhere, why do some people think they have the right to leave all their rubbish for other people to clear up. One of the families featured came from Newry in Ireland, so it's not even as though they were paying council tax in Suffolk to pay the wages of the man who had to clear up after them.

Time for me to stop now before I burst a blood vessel. :evil:
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Carlotta King
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Post by Carlotta King »

Yes Julie, it does seem as if the sympathies often lie with the criminals. In another post a while back I quoted a case that I had heard about where a burglar was praised by the judge for being brave, as 'it takes guts to break in to somewhere' :shock:

Yes Legal Aid is incredibly difficult to get, you can only get it for certain matters anyway, and goodness knows what sort of low money you have to be on to qualify for totally free help; I have a close friend who only works a few hours on a retail wage and he needs legal aid but is still having to pay for some of it out of his wages, it's not totally free even for someone like him with hardly any money.

I should imagine that people who obviously have, in the eyes of the law, enough money to buy a £30,000 caravan (even though they are still paying for it and obviously don't have £30,000 loose change) sadly wouldn't stand a hope of getting any free legal help.

That silly rule about infringement of human rights could apply to everything. They'll be doing away with prison soon because no doubt someone will complain that imprisoning someone is an infringement? :)

I think while I'm on the way to find my new country home i'll fill up a trolley in the supermarket and run out with it - after all I have a basic right to eat, don't I?! :)
Last edited by Carlotta King on 07 Aug 2013, 20:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Katharine
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Katharine »

Don't be silly, you don't want to push that shopping trolley all the way home. Pinch a car first, and then drive the shopping home in that. :wink:
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Francis »

Perhaps the man who was sympathised with by the Prosecuter and Judge for having sex with a 13 year old girl is rather pleased with our legal system. Perhaps they would feel the same about whoever took the caravan.
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Hmm - I'll have to try moving my family into the house of a judge or lawyer while s/he is out. I wonder whether they'd take the same view of "human rights" under those circumstances!
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Rebeccadanielle »

That wouldn't happen here. Nobody would actually care about the people who had "bought" the caravan, they'd be told to shove off and the caravan would be returned. Cars get stolen a lot around here and nothing ever gets done about them, mainly because when the police are called in, the cars are then burnt out by the thieves so they get away and somebody is out of a car and left to pay for not only having their destroyed car taken away, they then have to either catch the unreliable bus service or try and save up for another car.
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Katharine »

I've never understood why people steal cars and then dump and burn them. Although it's obviously wrong, I can see the reasoning behind stealing a car, and then selling it on and so making some money, but unless a car is used as a getaway vehicle for some other crime and then torched, why destroy it? That way, no one has a car, and the person who stole it isn't any better off either.

Mind you, I've never understood vandalism, and so I suppose torching cars is just another form of that. I always find it odd, that poverty is often blamed for such behaviour. Whilst I didn't grow up exactly poverty stricken, I wasn't brought up in an affluent household either. So therefore, whatever we did have, we cherished and looked after, as we knew that if something got spoilt, lost or broken, we wouldn't be able to afford to replace it. That respect for possessions extended to those of other people too, as we could empathise how it feels to be without something.
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Carlotta King
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Post by Carlotta King »

You're right, Katharine - you'd think that living in poverty would make people glad of what they had got and cherish their things, and understand how it feels to own something nice, and in turn, understand how it feels to be without things.

Surely someone who doesn't have very much would hate feeling like that and wouldn't want other people to feel like that?
I guess some people are just truly nasty and don't care if someone else loses something. It's horrible isn't it.

I suppose some people have the attitude of 'I haven't got anything so why should anyone else have anything', a kind of bitterness I suppose.

I grew up like you, not in poverty but not in great wealth, we were just an ordinary family with one car, one tv, a normal house and garden, and I was taught to look after my things, I had nice things but never had the latest 'fashions' or gadgets and toys, and as such cherished the things I was given.
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Deej »

The traveller’s case Tony mentioned is an injustice to the couple who had their caravan stolen. Equally so is the trial Francis posted about a 13-year-old victim of child abuse being a ‘predator’ despite the fact the 41-year-old man who sexually abused her was found to have images of child abuse and bestiality at his home. He also admitted two counts on making extreme pornographic images and one count of sexual activity with a child. To get an eight-month suspended sentence for such a crime is disgraceful. Two great examples of how our legal system and human rights system enshrined by EU law favours criminals over victims. It’s a shame the EU can be so ridiculous as I think the European Court of Human Rights is on the whole a good thing. Katharine and Carlotta make good points about why people in poverty turn to vandalism and violent crime. I also find it totally unacceptable that anyone would want to destroy a car or go around trashing local businesses and homes during the summer riots. Making the most of what you get certainly is the best approach. However, I can understand and sympathise with the anger of these people even if it isn’t channelled in the correct way. These people feel there are no opportunities in society in terms of education and employment, that they are ignored, demonised and the victim of an unequal society where some people do have too much and others too little. It’s their way of getting attention and a chance to be listened even if they will be portrayed as mindless thugs and a component of ‘Broken Britain with overly harsh sentences, police brutality and political rhetoric that doesn’t address the root cause of the problems our society faces.
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Re: A Strange Case

Post by Francis »

Unfortunately people who commit these offences are seeking self gratification rather than trying to
right wrongs. Often their victims are from the poorer and more vulnerable ends of society. Sexual abuse is carried out by people of all classes and status as we have discovered in the past. Those in places of authority have done so on a massive scale. I am all in favour of people demonstrating opposition to the current inequalities in society but do so in a responsible manner. After all the squeaky door gets the oil.
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