Want a life of crime without punishment? Move to my fair city!
Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of ink spilled about a crooked used car business (yes, crooked used car businesses exist outside of the movies). This business (or businesses, actually) would sell cars to anyone - regardless of credit - and had a pretty good thing going.
So, how did they make a profit? For one thing, the interest rates they charged were outrageous. For another, after they made deals with clients (for example, a deal which involved selling a car for $nnn and arranging for the purchaser to pay $x per month for 3 years), they would turn around after the customer left, and forge the documentation so that they collected far more than the originally agreed $nnn from the finance company, and doctored the paperwork so the buyer would get stuck with $x per month for 6 or 7 years, instead of 3.
Many of the customers couldn't really complain, since they had lied on their original credit applications and were therefore complicit in the scheme.
In addition to cheating customers with forged documents, they would also sell "extended warranties" to the customers, but didn't register them. So, if a client ever tried to get service, they were denied because there was no such warranty in place!
During the lengthy investigation of the first business, police found the connection to the second business and made arrangements to raid that dealership (owned by the same person). Quite coincidentally, that second dealership experienced a suspicious fire only hours before the raid was scheduled to take place! Too bad their excellent fire suppression system actually worked - preventing the evidence from getting burned up!
The mastermind and his business partners were arrested and placed in jail. He approached the court sometime later with a request to have a few days off to visit his ailing mother overseas. Over the objections of local police, he was allowed a week to see his mother. He hasn't been seen since.
To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why he even bothered to run.
In a completely unrelated case, a local man accused of running an international theft and chop shop ring was charged with over 200 counts. His family members and other related parties were similarly charged. The local police, provincial police, federal police and police from the United States all had been watching his operation for over a year. They had a strong case. For some reason, rather than endure a long pretrial and trial, the prosecutor agreed to accept a guilty plea on a single charge - possession of stolen goods over $5000.
All other charges were dropped. And because this was a "first offense", our mastermind criminal escaped with probation and a laughable restitution order. He won't spend a day in jail.
Let that be a lesson to would-be criminal masterminds. If you move here, get charged with a serious crime (or crimes), don't bother leaving the country and giving up the life of luxury to which you've become accustomed. Show up for court, and take your tap on the wrist like a man!
