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Mr.Anderson
12 Jul 15 14:04
Joined:
Date Joined: 07 Oct 10
| Topic/replies: 762 | Blogger: Mr.Anderson's blog
I'm Swedish, but today a shady English speaking (sounded a bit Irish) character showed up at my house. He claimed I had a broken tile on my roof, which I strongly suspect is bullshit. (Traveling English speaking craftsmen have a bad reputation around here as they usually are dishonest.) Anyway I said I didn't care about having a broken tile, and took the registration number of his car. I've looked it up at https://www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/Default.aspx It kind of confirms that I got the right number. It also says that the car is untaxed and has had no MOT.

Is there any easy way of finding out more about the car, like who the owner is or if it's been reported stolen?

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Replies: 30
By:
The Leopard
When: 12 Jul 15 14:07
Report the soap-dodger to the constabulary....he will be going to someone not as savvy as you soon.
By:
warhan
When: 12 Jul 15 14:07
irish accent looking for manual work driving vehicle with no tax = pikey
By:
akabula
When: 12 Jul 15 14:12
Same thing happened where I live. Inspected the roof for free and about 12 tiles were found ready to cave in (he helped them).
Resident left with hole in roof as a more savvy neighbour knew what he was up to and hunted him (he'd quoted about £2k to fix).
Reported to the police but nowt they could do.
These peep are pure vermin preying on the old.
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 12 Jul 15 14:16
Yeah, I'm about to inform my local police about him, and give them the registration number. Unfortunately they are pretty useless, and our laws toothless.
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 12 Jul 15 14:18
He was very keen to get onto my roof. No doubt he would have broken some tiles if he had been given the chance.
By:
akabula
When: 12 Jul 15 14:23
That's there MO.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/679833.stm

Still at it allegedly.
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 12 Jul 15 14:29
No way he would have gotten such a "long" prison sentence here. Sweden is a dream country for career criminals.
By:
Foinavon
When: 12 Jul 15 14:42
Never let a stranger on your roof. They will break tiles and dislodge your chimney pots for free, then offer emergency repairs at a price.
By:
spellingandgrammarchecker
When: 12 Jul 15 16:02
Mr.Anderson   
12 Jul 15 14:29 
No way he would have gotten such a "long" prison sentence here. Sweden is a dream country for career criminals.


Somebody posted on here last week that it's against the law to disclose the ethnicity of rapists in Sweden?

Is that right?
By:
MisterBadger
When: 12 Jul 15 16:56
get Kurt Wallander on to it, he'll have it wrapped up in no time
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 12 Jul 15 17:17
I've now reported my suspicions to the police! I doubt they will do much with the information though:(



"Somebody posted on here last week that it's against the law to disclose the ethnicity of rapists in Sweden?

Is that right?"




Hmm, I don't think it's against the law spellinggrammarchecker, but the media rarely say anything about the ethnicity of criminals. Think it's a self-imposed code of ethics though. Also Sweden no longer keep any statistics about the ethnicity of criminals. It's considered racist or something. You can look at statistics from neighbouring countries though, and there's no crime category where immigrants from muslim countries are more overrepresented than rape.
By:
spellingandgrammarchecker
When: 12 Jul 15 17:23
I think the post implied that rape cases had gone up 1000% since the settlement of plenty of Somalis in Sweden, but the records won't show who is responsible.

Iirc, Malmo was mentioned in the post.
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 12 Jul 15 18:16
I don't know to what degree somalis can be blamed for that increase. I don't doubt that they are way overrepresented when it comes to rape, but even though quite a few have come here in recent decades they still make up quite a small proportion of the Swedish population. If rape cases have gone up by as much as 1000% it seems unlikely to me that the somalis alone are more than a minor part of the explanation. While there are no crime statistics for somalian immigrants, I can with certainty say that only 18% have a job...

Malmö is probably the most multi cultural city in Sweden. Lots of people of arabic origin live there, and some somalis too.
By:
spellingandgrammarchecker
When: 12 Jul 15 18:26
The post said that because of Swedish law, the stats can be puzzling.

It was said that if a Swede raped his wife every day for a year, that would constitute 365 crimes.

I don't know any woman that wouldn't have somehow killed him by the end of January, so back to square one with the stats.
By:
screaming from beneaththewaves
When: 12 Jul 15 18:36
Crimestoppers:

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information-online/

They won't want to know your name.

Select Disqualified/uninsured drivers under "Please select a crime". Give a physical description of the chap and his scam under section number 6.
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 12 Jul 15 18:46
I'm no law expert, but I vaguely recall that a couple of years ago what constitutes rape changed a bit. No idea how much difference that made. Suppose it can be tricky to compare crime rates between countries for several reasons. One being that rape probably is one of the most underreported crimes in all countries including Sweden, but there are other countries where hardly anyone reports it to the police.
By:
lfc1971
When: 12 Jul 15 18:49
Let me give you a clue, Sweden is a very feminist country, innocent men are being accused of rape...it is even possible despite the statistics that Sweden does not have the most rapes in Europe but actually has less than anywhere in the world.
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 12 Jul 15 19:03
Screaming, there's a space for town and county, but not country. You think they want to know about stuff that happens abroad? Is he breaking English law when he is driving around uninsured with an untested vehicle in Sweden?
By:
spellingandgrammarchecker
When: 12 Jul 15 19:45
As for the number plate check, I thought my MOT expired in August.
The site says October.
By:
screaming from beneaththewaves
When: 13 Jul 15 00:18
Mr. Anderson, the UK police might well be interested in his whereabouts. Who knows what he might have been doing in the UK before he popped up in Scandinavia?

Your information might prove important if that registration number turns up in the course of another investigation in the future.

As I said, it's anonymous and the form only takes a few minutes to complete.

You wanted to find out who the owner was or whether the vehicle was stolen. The only people with access to that kind of information are the UK police, and this is the simplest way I can think of to bring the matter to their attention.
By:
tictacman1
When: 13 Jul 15 00:22
just phone it into crimestoppers.....or online....

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information-online/
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 13 Jul 15 09:32
All right, I've now reported him to Crimestoppers as well. Bet he didn't expect to be reported to both the Swedish and UK police when he showed up at my house:)
By:
screaming from beneaththewaves
When: 13 Jul 15 14:02
Well done.

Chit Chat now has its very own Scandinavian detective.
By:
alun2005
When: 13 Jul 15 14:07
Bravo Mr Anderson. An excellent day's work.
By:
spellingandgrammarchecker
When: 13 Jul 15 17:03
The Matrix has taken action.
By:
akabula
When: 13 Jul 15 20:54
The forum at it's best Love
No hiding place for the criminals on here.
By:
Mr.Anderson
When: 14 Jul 15 16:43
"Chit Chat now has its very own Scandinavian detective."

Yeah, just let me know if you need some Scandinavian help in the fight against crime:) I can help translate Swedish, Danish and Norwegian texts for example. If you see a suspicious Swedish car and want to know who the registered owner is you can just call the Swedish Transport Agency btw, and they'll tell you.

I've done some reading about Irish Travellers now. Didn't know much about them before.

The UK police seem well aware that there are some more or less criminal Irish Travellers operating in Sweden. I found this article from a couple of years ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041382/Forced-work-tarmac-cowboys-The-British-men-trafficked-abroad-Irish-slave-gangs.html

Now this lovely group of people have branched out into roofing. It seems they specialise in unnecessary roof work and various cons. Usually targeting elderly people the bastards. I've found some recent Swedish news articles about this. Like this one for example: http://www.expressen.se/gt/anita-78-blastes-pa-154-000-av-taklaggare/
I can't be bothered to translate all of it, but a brief summary would be that: The dishonest tarmacers from Ireland are back in western Sweden. Now they are doing unnecessary roof work. A 78-year old woman in Sweden was conned out of 154,000 SEK = 11,700 GBP. It all began with a free roof inspection. Then they found a broken tile. Later they thought that half of the roof needed to be replaced. The roof which was fine from the beginning was left destroyed when the roofers vanished. Neighbours helped her fix it. The police were too useless to catch the criminals even though they arrested one man who accompanied the old woman to the bank. He could not be connected to the crime the police said.

If they had been caught it should be noted that Swedish sentencing is extremely lenient. Something the Travellers no doubt are well aware of. Criminal gangs from eastern Europe are well aware of it too btw. Half of all burglaries in Sweden are committed by criminal gangs from abroad. Many coming from Poland and Lithuania. If you think Swedish politicians must be upset about this you think wrong. It seems to be a non-issue, and is not discussed at all. Texans have got the right idea imho: http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/irish-traveller-to-die-behind-bars-after-one-scam-too-many-26286948.html  A bit harsh if it was his first conviction maybe, but it probably wasn't?

Like I said before Swedish media are very reluctant to reveal from what ethnic group criminals come from. They trip over themselves in their quest to never portray any ethic minority group in a negative light. The case of Irish Travellers is a very good example of this. Quite a few articles have been written about dishonest Irish tarmacers operating in Sweden over the years, and the police have warned people about them. But never ever has it been mentioned that they are Irish Travellers, or that they belong to a special cultural group. They are just called "Irish" in Swedish media. I wonder if Swedish journalist are aware that many Irish Travellers actually are British citizens. I've never read anything about British tarmacers in Swedish papers. It has always been "Irish". Up until a couple of days ago I've had no idea that these "Irish tarmacers" (who now also are doing roofing) all come from a special cultural/ethnic minority group, and that many of them probably are British citizens.
By:
Facts
When: 15 Jul 15 01:29
akabula     12 Jul 15 14:12 
Same thing happened where I live. Inspected the roof for free and about 12 tiles were found ready to cave in (he helped them).
Resident left with hole in roof as a more savvy neighbour knew what he was up to and hunted him (he'd quoted about £2k to fix).
Reported to the police but nowt they could do.
These peep are pure vermin preying on the old.



Happened to a neighbour of mine some years back. She was an old lady, and they had knocked on her door and said she had loose tiles. They then went onto her roof and started removing coping tiles. They had previously gone  to another house in the street with same story and she had given them shirt shift.
As it was a neighbourhood watch area, and local police were contacted. Although the guy had driven off before police arrived , his reg.no. had been taken. He was traced and was  prosecuted under a retribution order. He had to make good the damage he had done to the roof,whilst being supervised by the police.
By:
Facts
When: 15 Jul 15 01:30
* short shift
By:
screaming from beneaththewaves
When: 15 Jul 15 10:36
From that article Mr Anderson cited:

A 'low ambition to prosecute the travellers' has led to the collapse of three human trafficking probes involving British nationals in Sweden.

The article doesn't make clear whether those prosecutions were attempted in Sweden or the UK. Depressing either way.

It seems the police are interested in dealing with this, so they might make use of Mr Anderson's information. The problem seems to be a lack of subsequent political will to treat crime as crime regardless of the identity of the, er, "community" committing it.
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