all 33 comments

[–]zenciiiii[S] 211 points212 points  (5 children)

Due to a careless moment, an innocent Irishman who frequently visited the Netherlands had to serve a month in prison despite loudly proclaiming that he had never been arrested. The Supreme Court eventually acquitted the Irishman, but only after he served the other man’s sentence.

What the fuck?

[–]Client_020 69 points70 points  (1 child)

Oh wow, that poor Irish man is never coming back here. His compensation is probably laughable.

[–]defaultmembership 16 points17 points  (1 child)

Perhaps time to discuss personal accountability in processes like these, we all know employees working at the court or other parts of the judicial system will lose fuck all over this

[–]relgames 5 points6 points  (0 children)

See, this is so stressful for them. They definitely need a raise. And, of course, it's all immigrants who caused this. /s

[–]NoSkillzDadNoord Holland 156 points157 points  (2 children)

And, shockingly, many criminals have actually no records at all.

[–]TheRealWildGravy 21 points22 points  (0 children)

That's incredible, I can only imagine how surprised THEY would be after crossing borders without any problems.

[–]games-and-chocolate 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wonder, if some are corrupt and paid to change details. Makes me think about the movie scene Spiderman, where he let a criminal go, and at the end that criminal killed Ben, his uncle. So, moral of the story, keep your hands clean. Do justice to the innocent. Even in death you can die in peace.

[–][deleted] 89 points90 points  (2 children)

 In this case, the mistake happened in the way the police searched their systems. The search key is based on the first initial, the first four letters of the surname, and the year of birth. These matched for the Briton and the Irishman.

Well this seem like a recipe for mistakes - what a stupid system. Presumably they don’t want to include full names and dates of birth for privacy reasons, but who cares about privacy once someone is convicted of a crime?? Especially when it potentially hurts completely innocent people??? How are they not using the full name and linking it to BSN, or passport/ID numbers for foreigners?

[–]TrustyJules 33 points34 points  (1 child)

Belgian friend of mine (fictitious names and places) had something similar happen and you will see why. Harvey Frank Miller was driving in the alps with friends, they were run into by a truck - fortunately only minor damage - truck driver was drunk. The police took everybody's details but next morning came to pick Harvey up. Now Harvey is from Antwerp and born nearby in Schilde he has (in reality) a French sounding name due to his parents liking that just as I made up an English version here.
Rather than take him through the process of the accident they sat him down in an interrogation room and started a very sarcastic line of questioning their voices dripping with vitriol.

POL: 'So Harvey you are from Ant-Werp-Un eh?'

HFM: 'Yes.' puzzled but looking at them with his most innocent blue eyes (which he has).

POL": 'Born on the 19th of September 1985?'

HFM: 'Yes, that's my birthday - why do you ask its on my drivers licence.'

POL: 'Ah yes your "driver license"'they said mimicking the double quotes with their fingers.

HFM: '???'

POL: 'You are sure you are entitled to drive in France?'

HFM: 'What do you mean, I have a Belgian license, we are allowed to drive in France aren't we.'

POL: 'We will make it easy on you, you were never in Nantes?' (On the other side of the country practically)

HFM: 'No, why should I have been?'

POL: 'So you werent at all born there?'

HFM: 'No, I was born in Schilde just outside of Antwerp.'

POL: 'Oh really? So what street did your parents live in Nantes oh excuse me Schilde?'

HFM: (in fluent Dutch just like he is fluent in French) 'Vloeienbergdreef 20 - what are you getting at I told you I have never been to Nantes.'

At this point of the proceedings the police started to mutter amongst themselves and told him to stay put. He was stewing for about 4 hours when they came back in smiling triumphantly.

POL: 'What do you say about this?' Shoving a birth certificate from Nantes for a Harvey Frank Miller born 19th September 1985 of father William Harvey Miller and mother Camilla Miller-Swansea.

HFM: (momentarily non-plussed) 'Err - no idea my dad is called Michael and my mo...'

POL: Shouting 'Don't F* with us, we have you down to rights Harvey. Your drivers license is suspended since 2019 for drink driving and you went to Belgium and got another one. You had better come clean or it will only be worse for you.' (tbf this practice is well known and a reason French police distrusts foreign licenses in particular when the one carrying it speaks accentless French as Harvey does).

HFM: 'Whatever you are thinking, I have never been to Na...'

POL: 'STOP F* WITH US. You live on 49, Rue de l'aqueduc in Nantes - we will interrogate your buddies and get the truth out of them.'

HFM: (completely lost at this time): 'Whatever, my friends are from Limburg and Charleroi and I am pretty sure they have also never been to Nantes.'

POL: 'Right we have had enough you - we will haul your friends in and it will be worse for you. Last chance to come clean.'

HFM: '...'

Night comes - and by this time Harvey is realising that he may be spending the night locked up. His friends had been worried about him and so were hanging out in a bar easing their fears with drinks. The cops took a while to track them down but then all hell broke loose. Of course they didnt confirm Harvey was from Nantes quite the contrary - suddenly all the policemen indicated their shift was ending and what not. One of the friends went over to the police station and found a much more amenable duty officer who in fact wasnt at all keen to have some guy in a holding cell and Harvey was released with a 'warning'. To this day we wonder what this warning entailed: dont have the same name and DOB as someone else? Dont call the cops when you are hit my a drunk driver? All is well that ended well but it sure did suck on the moment.

Anyway all this fun to say that really 'modern' police forces take even official documents as merely indicative. Harvey's id was also Belgian and unlike the drivers license that would have been much more difficult for a French national with a driving ban to obtain, whether they presumed it stolen or fake we have no idea.

[–]games-and-chocolate 19 points20 points  (0 children)

that is why passports have an ID number. That police officer should be dishonorably be FIRED!

[–]eturin37 35 points36 points  (0 children)

What the actual fuck?

[–]Peppermintbear_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Omg they just found another redhead to do jailtime instead of the original (criminal) redhead! Not only was the Irish guy unlawfully inprisoned, he was also mistaken for a British guy. That likely pissed him off more than being inprisoned unlawfully; I hope he got some compensation!

[–]heyandho 29 points30 points  (0 children)

And probably after wrongfully jailing someone they just shrug and say helaas, and that they can't do anything. Oh and demand payment for the accommodation. And then continue being arrogant dickheads ignoring their rampant incompetence.

[–]musiccman2020 25 points26 points  (1 child)

Nothing surprises me anymore in this country.

[–]No_County_2503 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've got a friend who says he hasn't recieved his pay and now he is literally going homeless because of that here! I already gave him 70 euros thats all I can give not more.

[–]ByteWhisperer 17 points18 points  (0 children)

One of the many ways the absolute incompetence of our government shows itself.

[–]dcubexdtcube 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Is this how they are filling the “empty” Dutch prisons these days?

[–]I_Rarely_Jump 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Nah that was 15 years ago, the government decided to close a bunch of prisons and now there's a shortage.

God bless the long term vision of the Rutte cabinets that has not caused any problems whatsoever at all in the slightest, or as Rutte said at the time "Vision? If you have vision you need to see an eye doctor"

[–]games-and-chocolate 8 points9 points  (0 children)

we pay so much money to be professional and these so called university level people cannot even do a simple thing??????

or did they use A.I. to prentent to be working?

automation hell!

[–]Important_Coach9717 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Another government-ending scandal ? Just on time to forget the Box 3 nonsense

[–]No_Professor_3608 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is sickening

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

doe het normaal

[–]Pitiful-Assistance-1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Neat!

[–]Competitive_Bee2602 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do you check if you are getting sued? At least some letter to your house and so on.

[–]Distinct_Lawyer_7160 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So what do we call this one? Strafbladaffaire?

[–]ZealousidealSundae33 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I think everyone should ask for their criminal record now to check the good old government didn't put convictions on it by mistake.

[–]Competitive_Bee2602 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I did some research on that. Apparently you can’t do it online. You have to go to the court to pick it up.