Ask Me Help Desk - What sort of punishment?

Hi,

I have a friend who used to work in a bank while he was a college, and unfortunately got into debt with credit cards. He had been working in the bank for a year until he got hit by the debt and to ease the debt, he started stealing account details and tried selling it, he didn't get much money for it (something like £100 per details was arranged per account but he got something like £50 for a few account details, he also tried using the accounts himself but didn't know how to use it, so no luck there either). Now in the mean time he realised that this wasn't right and he's a pretty decent guy, I mean he doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, no drugs and always doing good at his course.

He decided to stop but the guy who used to buy these details and threatened that if my friend stopped giving the bank accounts, he'd get his little brother beaten up and would damage his house, as somehow this guy knew where my friend lived and where his brother went to school. He got scared and gave him something like 30 accounts and he got caugth by the bank, who said that something around £40000 had been fraudulently taken, he admitted that he had done it and even went to the police himself to confess and get this guy who threatned his family.

Now the police got his details and said they will have to get in touch with the bank and once they do, they will then try and get this guy. Around 4 years had passed until quite recently when we were coming back from a friend trip from poland and he got arrested in the airport (bear in mind that he has been in and out of the country since the bank incident many times, but recently got arrested by the police) and he was told that he's been on the wanted list for almost 2 years.

Obviously he was shocked and we had to leave him with the police, he's current on bail and has a hearing in 3 months.

He's depressed about the whole thing and still the same guy as he was before, he hasn't committed any other crimes since then (this being his first crime) and had many jobs and not betrayed anyone's trust and I fear he's going to go suicidal fearing his life is over, if he gets punished.

What is the kind of punishment he might get? It'll be great if I can get an answer asap, I want to try and help him cause he really is a nice guy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmanuelb90

Hi,

I have a friend who used to work in a bank while he was a college, and unfortunately got into debt with credit cards. he had been working in the bank for a year until he got hit by the debt and to ease the debt, he started stealing account details and tried selling it, he didn't get much money for it (something like £100 per details was arranged per account but he got something like £50 for a few account details, he also tried using the accounts himself but didnt know how to use it, so no luck there either). Now in the mean time he realised that this wasn't right and he's a pretty decent guy, I mean he doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, no drugs and always doing good at his course.

He decided to stop but the guy who used to buy these details and threatened that if my friend stopped giving the bank accounts, he'd get his little brother beaten up and would damage his house, as somehow this guy knew where my friend lived and where his brother went to school. He got scared and gave him something like 30 accounts and he got caugth by the bank, who said that something around £40000 had been fraudulently taken, he admited that he had done it and even went to the police himself to confess and get this guy who threatned his family.

Now the police got his details and said they will have to get in touch with the bank and once they do, they will then try and get this guy. Around 4 years had passed until quite recently when we were coming back from a friend trip from poland and he got arrested in the airport (bear in mind that he has been in and out of the country since the bank incident many times, but recently got arrested by the police) and he was told that he's been on the wanted list for almost 2 years.

Obviously he was shocked and we had to leave him with the police, he's current on bail and has a hearing in 3 months.

He's depressed about the whole thing and still the same guy as he was before, he hasn't commited any other crimes since then (this being his first crime) and had many jobs and not betrayed anyones trust and I fear he's gonna go suicidal fearing his life is over, if he gets punished.

What is the kind of punishment he might get?, It'll be great if I can get an answer asap, I wanna try and help him cause he really is a nice guy.

As a person who experienced having her late husband's identity stolen I have trouble classifying your friend as a "nice guy" who doesn't drink or smoke and "only" affected and possibly destroyed the lives over 30 families when he was in a position of trust.

He hasn't committed any other crimes since then? Is that the part that makes him a nice guy?

If he is suicidal then the Court system has to be advised and he needs to be put on suicide watch, possibly against his will.

It sounds like he made a bad decision and compounded it by making other bad decisions - and theft is theft. I trust he has an excellent Attorney (I realize you are in the UK) but would not be surprised if he is sentenced to time in prison. ID theft is taken very seriously, particularly when the thief is the person with responsibility and authority. I realize he's been able to travel in and out of the UK - has he made restitution of any sort?

It also MIGHT be helpful for him to see a counsellor - it would show he's working on his "problem" (whether or not you and he think he has a problem). Does he do volunteer work of some sort? He could always see if anyone needs his services and start NOW.

Nice guys don't ruin other peoples lives by doing these sorts of things... ID theft ruins peoples lives and costs people HUGE ammounts of grief, money and uneeded work.

Personally... for the pain and trouble caused to others... he's not going to get nearly enough punishment.

This guy is NO "nice" guy. And if YOU had been his victim... you might see this too.

Maybe I shouldn't have labelled him a 'nice guy', I realise that he shouldn't have done it in the first place, nevertheless what I'm trying to say is that he'd just turned 18, not so educated and obviously didn't think it through, call it naïve or ignorance he did do wrong.

But he also did try to stop and was threatened by someone else, otherwise to meet bad consequences, he tried to help the cops at the time and the bank to give them information about this guy, but they wouldn't take it.

Now I now what he did was wrong (and I'd appreciate if there wasn't any 'he got what he deserved' type remarks), but the other guy (who seems a much bigger culprit) is gotten away with it all.

What I really want to know is that even though he hadn't (not that he thought it would be this much) got any chunk of this £40000 stolen, what kind of punishment (if in prison sentence) is he expected to do?

And thanks, I will try and get him to a consellor.

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't think anyone on this site that is a lawyer, can tell you what will happen in court. It depends on the judge, how seriously this crime is taken where you live, and past cases, and how much damage your friend did.

He may not have gotten a lot of monetary gain from this, but the emotional and financial pain he inflicted to the people whose info he sold, that's a big deal.

You seem to be making a lot of excuses for him. He tried to get out of it, he didn't because he was threatened. Does he realize that if he hadn't chosen this path to begin with, no threats would have been made towards him? He chose this, he did this, now he has to suffer the consequences. I'm sure it doesn't seem worth it now, considering how little money he got for doing it, but he did do it, and he did get paid for it. What he did is not a small crime. It's not taken lightly.

His age isn't a factor, he's legally an adult, and will be treated as such. Fact is, my 9 year old knows right from wrong. Most people that have a moral compass know that what your friend did, isn't okay, and is very wrong. The fact that he feels bad now, because he was caught, really makes no difference. They all say "I'm so sorry, I'm a good person, I'll never do this again", when they're caught.

I know you don't want to hear this, but it's very possible that he'll get a very harsh sentence, and nice guy or not, he does deserve whatever he gets. If you do the crime you have to be prepared to do the time.

Thanks for the feedback.

I guess I am backing him, since I know him a lot better, but he did go in with the intention, and unfortunately is guilty of his actions.

I was trying to avoid the 'he is a bad guy and will get his round' type stuff, partly because I know he's done wrong and partly because it seems that given any topic, people can vent all the anger and get into telling me about their stories, I just did wanted a straight answer, but I guess a lawyer is probably the best option for that.

Thanks once again for your time.

He has YOU duped with his woe is me excuse... but its going to make the court go even harder on him.

These aren't opinions.. these are facts... the courts are getting VERY aggressive on these kinds of criminals. And more-so all the time as the costs of these crimes to society grow exponentially.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmanuelb90

Thanks for the feedback.

I guess I am backing him, since I know him a lot better, but he did go in with the intention, and unfortunately is guilty of his actions.

I was trying to avoid the 'he is a bad guy and will get his round' type stuff, partly because I know he's done wrong and partly because it seems that given any topic, people can vent all the anger and get into telling me about their stories, I just did wanted a straight answer, but I guess a lawyer is probably the best option for that.

Thanks once again for your time.

I wish you the best. I do think he needs to be punished, and I'm very sure he will be, which is what he deserves.

Hopefully you're right about him and he simply made a mistake. If that's the case, you can hope that he doesn't have to pay too harshly for this crime. But, even if he does get life in prison, it's deserved, no matter what he's learned from this. Can't say I'd be sad to see him spend the rest of his life in jail. He did this knowing full well what he was doing, and the consequences. He has no excuse for this. He only has excuses now because he was caught.

Get a lawyer and hope for a very lenient judge. That's all you can do.

Good luck.