Claim it back on expenses.

Tongue Tied links to this utterly preposterous story from the Netherlands.

A man committed armed robbery. He was caught and convicted. He was sentenced to four years in jail, and was also ordered to pay back the €6600 he stole from the bank. So far, so humdrum.

But.

The pistol he used to commit the robbery cost him €2000. So, once you take into account his expenses, the bank robbery only made him a net profit of €4600. The court therefore decided that he should only have to pay €4600 back to the bank. This decision is fully backed up by Dutch law, apparently.

In other words, in the Netherlands, if you are successfully convicted of bank robbery, then the bank you robbed are legally obliged to pay you for the guns you used.

I expect to see Dutch bank robbers start to use gold-plated weapons. I also expect that Dutch firearms dealers will start to accept bribes in return for issuing grossly exaggerated receipts.