Criminals caught up in benefits cheat probe
Published: 5 Sep 09 07:31 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/21900/20090905/
A campaign by Sweden’s social insurance agency (Försäkringskassan) to root out benefits cheats has found that about 100 seasoned criminals have received millions in unwarranted payments.
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In addition, around 30 well-known criminals have been denied benefits worth roughly 6 million kronor after their applications were found to have faulty information, reports the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
Altogether, the social insurance agency has demanded the return of 312 million kronor in benefits payments from 5,223 Swedes.
Ninety-six serious criminals accounted for about 26.9 million kronor in fraudulent payments, roughly 8 percent of the total fraud uncovered by the agency.
Once case involves a 44-year-old man known for blackmailing others who has now been asked to return 1,167,501 kronor in wrongly awarded sick pay and housing allowances. The man ran several black market businesses at the same time he was claiming sick benefits.
In another case, a 43-year-old bank robber has been asked to give back 349,028 kronor in sickness and parental leave benefits. He had received the money based on income earned from a fictitious employer.
In 81 cases, Försäkringskassan’s anti-fraud unit has filed reports with the police about benefits crimes, offences which can result in sentences of up to four years in prison.
But the agency doesn’t know what has happened as a result of their complaints, because the police have failed to provide any follow-up reporting on the cases.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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AFTER they pay the money back - THEN they can get out of prison!
What? IF you lock them up they will not be able to pay back the money?
You are dreaming if you think they will PAY IT BACK!
Every ore they earn in prison goes to pay their debt!
Guess what, as soon as they KNOW they are going to prison UNTIL the debt is repaid - they WILL come up with the money so they can avoid prison!
Soft on crime is to INVITE crime!!!!
Maybe the local could allow us to send in the names of all the people who are claiming state benefits while running business's and particularly those who we know were suspected of war crimes on all sides in the Balkans, peppered with the names of everyone we know to be a drug dealer, racketeer, trafficker or pimp. That would make a nice webpage.
Then maybe the Swedish authorities might be shamed internationally into protecting there own citizens.
I have moved to Sweden and am trying my best to assimilate into the local culture. The more I assimilate, the more I learn just how easy it is for a major criminal to have the run of the country.
I was raised in Ulster, known as Northern Ireland to some. If criminals there, were to behave as openly and blatantly as they do here, the local community would deal with them, let alone the police.
Sweden is a significantly better country to live in than most countries. It is being turned into a lawless wilderness by a bunch of renegades who are determined to cause mayhem. They need to be stopped by a police force.
I afraid when you'll become totally assimilated this place will become Ulster and the local communities the local will let alone the police and will lynch people instead…
And now seriously: Don't you think that assimilation means also to take in the local culture which also developed a habit to let the job to the police and do not become a self-appointed executioner?
Don't you think that all those people who were killed in Ireland were offers to the lynch mob you describe above? Do you really want to invest that habit of your to Sweden as well?
God forbid your assimilation Nemesis!
If you wish to worship a judeo-christian-islamic-satanist fantasy known as God, that is your personal business and nothng to do with me. Please do not try to impose your religeous beliefs on me. I tolerate religeon in others but do not tolerate attempts to impose it on me.
Regarding lynch mobs. They were very rare in Northern Ireland, in the entire 30 years of the troubles, hitting world headlines on the rare occassion when it happened. Most of the killing was by paramilitaries, police and army by far.
I have no intention of executing anyone in Sweden, as that would be illegal and I am a law abiding citizen.
Also Vahe, as someone who comes from Yerevan and is currently residing in Washington DC, not Sverige. You have absolutely no idea what the reality of life was like in Northern Ireland just like the Americans surrounding you and neither do Swedes for that matter.
In Sweden you will receive a very biased view point in the media, which is actually opposed to the majority of people in Northern Ireland, just like in the USA.
I intend to and will assimilate in Sverige. Oppose me if you want, but that battle, you would lose.
Where does Ireland come into this picture and why?
Stay on topic.
Let their names and pictures be published with an identifying bio so that we can determine who are these 96 individuals.
Is that culturally incorrect? (and please be specific.)