Boris Becker - criminal charges

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Boris Becker - criminal charges

cya · Intermediate Club Player

JonH comes home wrote:
I could engage but havent the energy to debate but clearly will disagree with Indy and CD.

Ive said before here, I know two people who got sentenced for financial crimes, no point in going into the details, I dont want them to be identified. One got a suspended sentence , 12 months, the other got 12 months inside. Both had young families. The one with the suspended sentence was mortified, clearly, ashamed. Did 300 hours community service where they identified he could do more than dig holes; he worked with a charity to help them access funds and build a business plan. His employer fired him but another saw he was remorseful and he got a job. He repaid all the money , kept his house and protected his family. He still supports the charity 12 years later working a day a week at no cost, on a Saturday and doing things in the evening. Hes learnt a massive lesson, but put something back in and rebuilt his life.

The other went to prison, lost his house and marriage. He couldnt re pay the money as he didnt have a job. Couldnt get a job after either as no one would touch him. Life fell apart really and he now works at a supermarket and suffers severe depression and anxiety.

Punishment is fine if that is the society we are but I tend to favour trying to get the positive out of someone.

Boris got a suspended sentence in 2002 . He obviously was not mortified , otherwise he would not have re-offended .

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

cya wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
I could engage but havent the energy to debate but clearly will disagree with Indy and CD.

Ive said before here, I know two people who got sentenced for financial crimes, no point in going into the details, I dont want them to be identified. One got a suspended sentence , 12 months, the other got 12 months inside. Both had young families. The one with the suspended sentence was mortified, clearly, ashamed. Did 300 hours community service where they identified he could do more than dig holes; he worked with a charity to help them access funds and build a business plan. His employer fired him but another saw he was remorseful and he got a job. He repaid all the money , kept his house and protected his family. He still supports the charity 12 years later working a day a week at no cost, on a Saturday and doing things in the evening. Hes learnt a massive lesson, but put something back in and rebuilt his life.

The other went to prison, lost his house and marriage. He couldnt re pay the money as he didnt have a job. Couldnt get a job after either as no one would touch him. Life fell apart really and he now works at a supermarket and suffers severe depression and anxiety.

Punishment is fine if that is the society we are but I tend to favour trying to get the positive out of someone.
Boris got a suspended sentence in 2002 . He obviously was not mortified , otherwise he would not have re-offended .

Fair comment. Not going to argue that. But we still, in general, I feel, jail people too easily.

Mark1968 · Intermediate Club Player

Boris has got off lightly here. He is far from ruined, he has loads of money hidden away and this will be largely forgotten in a couple of years other than by those he has diddled.
He will spend a few weeks in a proper prison then be moved to an open prison and that is what many people don't realise. I knew of somebody years ago who committed financial fraud, was put in an open prison and carried on with his life as normal in the day, he just had to sleep at the prison over night. Then Boris will be out in a year, 15 months at most, possibly as short as six months if he is on licence. This is a woefully inadequate sentence for multi million pound fraud and does not reflect the severity of the crime, or the lies he told in court. We are so soft in this country, he would not have dared do this in China for example. He could have got four years for this, he has dodged a bullet here and will be cracking open the champaign in a few weeks time.
Just to pick up on CD's point that people should not be jailed for drug offences. Drugs and violence are interlinked, the two go together. Thousands of people are killed every year in the drugs supply chain so middle and upper class people can enjoy their selfish habit with no regard for the consequences it causes. He and those like him will no doubt trot out the tired legalisation line which would just bring more drug producers and dealers into the market therefore upping the violence.

I used to admire Boris, I hope we never see him on the TV again.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Mark1968 wrote:
Boris has got off lightly here. He is far from ruined, he has loads of money hidden away and this will be largely forgotten in a couple of years other than by those he has diddled.
He will spend a few weeks in a proper prison then be moved to an open prison and that is what many people don't realise. I knew of somebody years ago who committed financial fraud, was put in an open prison and carried on with his life as normal in the day, he just had to sleep at the prison over night. Then Boris will be out in a year, 15 months at most, possibly as short as six months if he is on licence. This is a woefully inadequate sentence for multi million pound fraud and does not reflect the severity of the crime, or the lies he told in court. We are so soft in this country, he would not have dared do this in China for example. He could have got four years for this, he has dodged a bullet here and will be cracking open the champaign in a few weeks time.
Just to pick up on CD's point that people should not be jailed for drug offences. Drugs and violence are interlinked, the two go together. Thousands of people are killed every year in the drugs supply chain so middle and upper class people can enjoy their selfish habit with no regard for the consequences it causes. He and those like him will no doubt trot out the tired legalisation line which would just bring more drug producers and dealers into the market therefore upping the violence.

I used to admire Boris, I hope we never see him on the TV again.

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Saturday 30th of April 2022 10:03:31 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Mark1968 wrote:
Boris has got off lightly here. He is far from ruined, he has loads of money hidden away and this will be largely forgotten in a couple of years other than by those he has diddled.
He will spend a few weeks in a proper prison then be moved to an open prison and that is what many people don't realise. I knew of somebody years ago who committed financial fraud, was put in an open prison and carried on with his life as normal in the day, he just had to sleep at the prison over night. Then Boris will be out in a year, 15 months at most, possibly as short as six months if he is on licence. This is a woefully inadequate sentence for multi million pound fraud and does not reflect the severity of the crime, or the lies he told in court. We are so soft in this country, he would not have dared do this in China for example. He could have got four years for this, he has dodged a bullet here and will be cracking open the champaign in a few weeks time.
Just to pick up on CD's point that people should not be jailed for drug offences. Drugs and violence are interlinked, the two go together. Thousands of people are killed every year in the drugs supply chain so middle and upper class people can enjoy their selfish habit with no regard for the consequences it causes. He and those like him will no doubt trot out the tired legalisation line which would just bring more drug producers and dealers into the market therefore upping the violence.

I used to admire Boris, I hope we never see him on the TV again.

I happen to agree with a lot of what you say, Mark - BUT i never said that. In fact, I'd like to see where you got that from - maybe I'm wrong - maybe I said something that sounded like that somewhere - but, IMO, it shows me that you might not be reading what I said/others say/the news says properly.

My point was about comparative sentencing and effectiveness.

I said Boris most definitely deserved to go to jail BECAUSE we jail minor/major drug offenders and violent offenders, and that his crime is definitely as serious.

I also said it would be interesting to give the £35k it costs us to keep someone in jail for a year, to the drug violent guy. Because we know that prison doesn't work. Would the money actually be better spent just as a present? (Now, there's lots of flaws with this, it's not a 'practical' suggestion, it's just a putting it out there)

However, I agree with you smile

I also know several 'financial criminals' who have done perfectly nicely after jail. Way too nicely, in my opinion. (Which is not to say they all do, but it's why one shouldn't use one-off examples - Jon knows a couple with one sort of result, although only one is really in a bad way, you and I know a couple with another sort).

My suggestion has been that the financial penalties are not strict enough - I know one guy who went to jail for 6 months - he was perfectly happy about that. The only thing he cared about was that his money was still waiting when he got out. And, basically, it was. Take away his money and he'd have really had something to worry about. He said so, quite openly.

I agree, Mark. Boris will obviously have managed to hide certain assets - after all, that's precisely what he's been found guilty of, so it is inconceivable that the authorities have tied down ALL the assets he's hidden, it's what he does, what he's good at, as shown over the years. And that's even assuming that they have the jurisdiction to touch all the assets.

I wrote to the BBC several years ago, after the African immunity debacle, saying I'd never watch BBC tennis again while he was on air, and I haven't. He's just a thief. And an unrepentant one. It's not a hanging offence, and he can 'redeem' himself, but it's hardly someone you want to parade in front of kids and pay taxpayer money to.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Putting aside emotions and the like - are you sure Boris is good at hiding his assets? Strikes me he is actually pretty rubbish at it!

And Im sure that anything hes got hidden away now could easily be found, its not that difficult if we had a desire to do it.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Putting aside emotions and the like - are you sure Boris is good at hiding his assets? Strikes me he is actually pretty rubbish at it!

And Im sure that anything hes got hidden away now could easily be found, its not that difficult if we had a desire to do it.

Er, he's been doing it since way before 2002 and it's only finally properly caught up with him ? I would say that shows he's pretty good at it (not the best, I grant you, but pretty good)

And, no, it's not easy to find them all and then to get jurisdiction over them, not at all.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Putting aside emotions and the like - are you sure Boris is good at hiding his assets? Strikes me he is actually pretty rubbish at it!

And Im sure that anything hes got hidden away now could easily be found, its not that difficult if we had a desire to do it.
Er, he's been doing it since way before 2002 and it's only finally properly caught up with him ? I would say that shows he's pretty good at it (not the best, I grant you, but pretty good)
And, no, it's not easy to find them all and then to get jurisdiction over them, not at all.

Clearly CD you Know a lot more than me on this whole subject so I will bow out . Its cool.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Putting aside emotions and the like - are you sure Boris is good at hiding his assets? Strikes me he is actually pretty rubbish at it!

And Im sure that anything hes got hidden away now could easily be found, its not that difficult if we had a desire to do it.
Er, he's been doing it since way before 2002 and it's only finally properly caught up with him ? I would say that shows he's pretty good at it (not the best, I grant you, but pretty good)
And, no, it's not easy to find them all and then to get jurisdiction over them, not at all.
Clearly CD you Know a lot more than me on this whole subject so I will bow out . Its cool.

That's not the take-away, Jon smile

But, yes, maybe we'll put Becker on simmer for a while smile

indiana · Tennis legend

Been some very interesting discussions re jailing different strata of society and the other options available and thanks for all the thoughts and info. And I don't necessarily disagree with Jon that we jail too many folk

I just continue to think that Becker, with his litany of offences, is no example at all of someone for whom another option to taking away his liberty was acceptable.

And indeed, as CD and Mark have said, in no doubt practice, he has got off very lightly.

He will probably suffer knock-on effects in the future to his potential career and earnings and that will not be inappropriate and be very much his own fault.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

An excellent comment, I thought, from Andy:

'I didn't really feel particularly emotional about it,' said Murray when asked about his reaction to the news [about Becker being jailed].

'He broke the law and if you do that, I don't think you should get special treatment because of who you are or what you've achieved. Again, I feel sorry that he's in that situation, but I also feel sorry for the people that he's affected with his decisions as well and what's happened to them.

'I hope he's OK and that he learns from his mistakes. But I didn't have a particular emotion about it.'

(from the Daily Mail)

Elegant Point · Satellite level

Becker film will be deeply intimate :
A film length documentary is being made about Boris y Oscar winning film directors Gibney and Battsek. Hope any associated profit goes to paying off his unpaid debts.

https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasting/boris-becker-film-close-to-completion/5170288.article

dodrade · Satellite level

Given the reaction to Lester Piggott's death who spent time in prison for a similar offence I suspect Boris may be rehabilitated sooner than people think.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Boris was released from prison today; looks like he will be deported as soon as possible.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/63987543