Darwins guilty of canoe fraud

[yorkshirepudding]

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well in 2001, their house in Seaton Carew must have been worth about a hundred grand. They had 300,000 worth of debt and were expecting 250,000.

So if they weren't planning to pay off their debts, Anne sold the house say for the 100,000 it may have been worth at the time, plus the 250,000 from their policies and pension, 350,000 quid goes a heckuvalot further in Panama than it does here! The USD is the currency in Panama but property and cost of living is cheaper than in the US or UK. Plus they were quids in being complete debt free.

Different people and different set of morals.

Still not worth lying to your children about a dead father over even if the eventual plan was to tell them the truth.

"I am just speaking of the disparity of how ordinary stiffs can get treated by the law to how more 'connected' people get away with more elaborate swindling of working people's pensions for example."

i don't buy into this at all.it seems that every time a working joe gets sent down, a lot of people start feeling sympathy because some hypothetical blue blood we have imagined would not serve time for the same thing.
even if this hypothesis is true, that still doesn't in anyway excuse what these avg. people have done. they broke the law and deserve to be punished

yeah. you are right too. - i didn't say they didn't deserve their punishment. I said they had the book thrown at them. Not the thing.

It would be nice to see the law applied fairly to the avg joe and people with money.

note: rich does not = blue blood in my mind.

not the same thing.

no and sorry if you thought i was aiming that solely at you, i was speaking more in generalities and was using the "blue blood" thing as what a lot of people drag up as the worst stereotype of the rich.
i guess i'm just listening to too much radio talk shows as it's a slow day, and the amount of people who ring these ghastly (yet addictive) shows in when discussing crime is ridiculous. and every one of them who has a brother/sister who is locked up has blamed either the gardai or come out with "yeah but if he had an address in blackrock he'd have been let off with a warning".
maybe i should switch off the radio as it is getting me wound up again.

i agree with kiskidee. So many bigwigs in business get away with swindling millions, yet when an ordinary person tries to beat the banks, the consequences are dire. I don't condone their actions at all, but would like to see prison sentences for those who, for example, avoid paying millions in tax each year.

So was I the only one who PMSL when I heard they were going to set up a "Canoe School"?

I do feel for the sons, they must be absolutely devastated - cannot believe someone could do that to their own children