To feel sorry for Boris Becker?

[dottiedodah]

I dont know why ,but I just felt a bit sorry for him .I know he has behaved badly and squandered money he was supposed to use towards his creditors .But he just seemed so beaten somehow ,from Wimbledon to Prison .Such a fall from grace . YABU He deserves all he gets. Yanbu Feel sorry for him harsh treatment.

£50m is a huge amount

I think he has to face the music, tough as that is

Is he really only 52 .. he looks bloated and red ... the look I associate with alcohol abuse.
No I don't feel sorry for him.

Why on earth do you feel sorry for him????
he knew exactly what he was doing - shame on him!

I don't have a shred of sympathy for him; he was lucky not to get a longer sentence. By the same token I have no sympathy for Johnny Depp. The have both made millions and wasted it. They have made their own lives a misery and the cannot blame anyone else.

Apparently showed no remorse, no humility and learned nothing from the past. So no, I don’t feel sorry for him.

On your criteria I vote both YABU and YANBU. Of course it is his own fault but it is also a very sad state of affairs. I do feel sorry for him. He has messed up pretty spectacularly.

It's a very serious crime which he's exacerbated in all sorts of ways, but I believe that we should be able to find ways of giving non-violent offenders who aren't a danger to the public meaningful sentences that aren't seen as "a slap on the wrist" without imprisonment.

Nobody's going to be sleeping safer in their beds knowing that BB is locked up, at enormous public cost. There should be a better way.

YABU. He avoided tax abd didn't use assets to pay off debts. Sorry who do you thunk covers those costs? We all do.

Let him sit in prison sometime longer. Shame on him!

I am not saying this excuses him in any way, but if you have read Andre Agassi's bio "Open" it explains the pressures of tennis very well. Especially for players who make it big very young. Andre's own father was very abusive.

There's a knock on effect to (A) financial crimes though and (B) a knock on effect to this sentence as well.

A - it doesn't have to be violent to "hurt" people. Not necessarily in this case as I don't know the creditors involved but in cases like this people can be hugely impacted by not receiving the money to which they are entitled. This could be argued as a danger to the public. It's just another form of theft in some ways - do we not send thieves who steal peacefully to prison? Fraudsters?

B - if the sentence stops others doing it then there's less chance of A occurring.

Great read, albeit one critically panned, but there's dozens of tennis players who achieved young and haven't had these issues. Plus they seemed to happen post playing career so I'm not sure in this instance it's a valid excuse. If he's gone off the rails at 25 maybe but this all seems a bit too calculated to be the result of "too much, too soon".

But he's already been to court over his financial affairs and got away with not going to prison. So being just prosecuted doesn't seem to have an effect on him. Maybe this custodial sentence will convince him he can't afford to fly first class and stay in 5* hotels. He lied to his creditors and to the court. People will have lost livelihoods because of him. Financial crimes are not victimless crimes. And there is more than one way to rob people than breaking into their homes.

What did he spend all that money on? I read some articles and I gather expensive divorces, too many DC scattered around the world and conceived in broom cupboards, fancy houses in Wimbledon and Miami, but that seems par for the course for many athletes.

No sympathy for him. Not sure who he owed money too but what impact did his borrowing have on others and what were the ramifications of not repaying debts?

He will have enjoyed luxurious beyond my greatest imagination! He deserves everything he gets !

But Boris Becker wasn't a child or even young when he told these lies in court and tried to hide his assets. He was in his 50s and he made a calculated decision to defraud people. He was living a 5* lifestyle on a YMCA budget. And he knew that but carried on doing it. He'd already been through the courts in his 30s and still didn't take stock or change his behaviour. At some point you have to stop blaming your childhood and take responsibility.

he has shown no remorse

he deserves no sympathy imo

It’s not just that he squandered money. He actively hid assets from the official receiver. He already had a German conviction for tax evasion and he’s generally arrogant and a complete sleaze. He will be out in a year and a bit and will probably have a nice time being feted in prison. He got off lightly, really.

I'll save my sympathy for someone who deserves it. He's a shithead.

It seems like many athletes he carried on spending when retired despite the earnings drying up as well as the messy divorce. I read that up to a third of professional UK footballers and over half NBA players face serious financial problems post retirement (might have been one of the Secret Footballer books). Bad advice from selfish "allies" in a lot of cases.

i am sorry that things have turned out like this, i am sad he has behaved like this

His behavior puts him in the same camp as Trump, who used bankruptcy to stiff his creditors. Trump must have had better lawyers.

It’s what he deserves, no question. And he doesn’t deserve any sympathy as he’s brought it all on himself. However, I can’t help finding his very public fall from grace very sad.

OMG 😱 I did start reading the thread thinking it is the other Boris 🤣

He is the architect of his own misfortune. No doubt if he had fully disclosed everything right from the start, admitted everything, had been completely remorseful and done his level best to make arrangements to pay the debts back, then they might have looked more kindly on him keeping his trophies.

As it is, well. He's just a common criminal, who had already done it before and been convicted. It didn't teach him a lesson and he's done it again. No sympathy whatever from me.