Smuggling charges dropped after birthday boy revealed drinks list

Published: 20 Jan 10 08:22 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/24478/20100120/

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A 20-year-old Swedish man has been acquitted of smuggling charges after convincing a court that the 1,600 litres of beer and 30 litres of spirits found by customs officials were simply a few of the items on his birthday party beverage list.

In addition to the beer and liquor, the truck the man was driving back from Germany also contained 50 litres of alcopop flavored alcoholic beverages, 12 litres of wine, and 48 litres of strong cider, the Nerikes Allehanda (NA) newspaper reported.

Appearing before the district court in Örebro in central Sweden, the man explained to the court that the alcohol was meant to quench the expected thirst of the 100 guests he planned to invite to his birthday party.

Following the ruling, the 20-year-old can now reclaim the alcohol, which was confiscated by customs officials in Helsingborg in southern Sweden.

One judge and a lay judge found the 20-year-old’s story too good to be true, however, and concluded that the man had brought the alcohol into Sweden with the intention of selling it.

But their suspicions were overruled by the majority of the court’s justices.

Prosecutor Ingrid Löf told the newspaper she plans to read through the court’s ruling in its entirety before she decides whether or not to appeal the judgment.

TT/David Landes (news@thelocal.se)

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09:24 January 20, 2010 by livinginsweden
Let me calculate this:

1. 1600 litre of beer for 100 guests = 16 litre per guest or 32 cans per guest

2. 30 litres of spirit for 100 guess = 0.3 litre per guest

3. 50 litre of alcopop for 100 guests = 0.5 litre per guest

4. 12 litres of wine for 100 guests = 0.12 litre per guest

5. 48 litres of cider for 100 huests = 0.48 litre per guest

Total consumption per guest = 17.4 litres of alcohol per guest.

Is that the average consumption of alcohol per person at a birthday party or a smuggling operation?

Conclusion: there were two qualified judges and the rest of the judges are alcoholics and their status as judges should be questioned .. and they should be thrown out as judges because they have no common sense or are detached from reality.

ha ha
09:54 January 20, 2010 by wabasha
good for him! the only one that lost was the taxpayer and all that wasted court time. cheers to him and to all those who attend the (wink wink) party
10:08 January 20, 2010 by Nemesis
If he had said 300 to 400 guests I might have thought maybe.

it is obvious it is for sale.

At least he was showing entrepeneurial spirit:)
10:22 January 20, 2010 by apostolos1975
Some time the judicial system in Sweden gives the impression that is run by IDIOTS (at best) or RETARDS :S
10:58 January 20, 2010 by skatsouf
when is the party?
10:58 January 20, 2010 by glamshek
The decision does not take the amount of Liters into account, I guess.
11:09 January 20, 2010 by Britswedeguy
Maybe his guests were Polish.
13:55 January 20, 2010 by hilt_m
Let me calculate this:

1. 1600 litre of beer for 100 guests = 16 litre per guest or 32 cans per guest

2. 30 litres of spirit for 100 guess = 0.3 litre per guest

3. 50 litre of alcopop for 100 guests = 0.5 litre per guest

4. 12 litres of wine for 100 guests = 0.12 litre per guest

5. 48 litres of cider for 100 huests = 0.48 litre per guest

Total consumption per guest = 17.4 litres of alcohol per guest.

Is that the average consumption of alcohol per person at a birthday party or a smuggling operation?

Conclusion: there were two qualified judges and the rest of the judges are alcoholics and their status as judges should be questioned .. and they should be thrown out as judges because they have no common sense or are detached from reality.

ha ha

Ah but you need to take into account that not everyone will want to drink the same thing, some will want more of this and less of that, so you would need extra also 100 people comming, what if each brings a friend then you have 200 etc. On the other hand he probably was going to sell it lol at his party.
15:10 January 20, 2010 by chapora
Whether or not it was for a party he had already paid German VAT upon the booze so as to European Law provided that customs cannot prove that the booze was for resell then he is entitled to buy as much as he wants. It is not that unreasonable for people to buy over the amount for a party in say Germany or England so that one has cheaper booze for all those other occasions. As it is it is not every day that one hires a truck and fills it with drinks unless of course one is selling on the booze. Then it is merely a matter to see how often the individual came back into Sweden with a truck load of drink. Anyway, the real issue is that Swedish state greed by using morals as a basis for profiteering has perhaps overeached itself with the amount of tax it gathers on alchol. In this case tax on top of tax on top of tax paid. (the distiller/brewery pays a licence to manufacture booze the German state gathers a tax on the sale of the product and then Sweden comes along and says "hey what about my slice of your pie? You need to pay me off too before you can truely say what is yours is actually yours" Out of an interest does anyone know how much percent tax is paid on say a bottle of whiskey in Sweden? I shudder to think what it would actually be.
16:06 January 20, 2010 by harrylatour
In England it would JUST about cover it!! Scotland,,,,,,no way,,,,,they would have to get some more in!! Cheers hic!! Harry
16:46 January 20, 2010 by ADJB
This is what happens of course when it's cheaper to by Swedish beer in Germany.
22:42 January 20, 2010 by E.Coli
When I turned 30 I threw a weekendlong party for 30 ppl in the summer and the amount of liquer/person were along those lines, maybe a tad more sp sure why not.
00:58 January 22, 2010 by soultraveler3
I've been to a few swedish birthday parties and excluding the beer, the list doesn't acutally seem too off the mark. I've seen many a swede kill a case of beer by themselves during a long hot summer day. :)
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