Bicycle thief is jailed for ‘ecological crimes’ in Belgium because victims forced to drive instead | Daily Mail Online (Feb 2020)
A bicycle thief has been jailed for three years for ‘ecological crimes’ in Belgium because his victims would be forced to drive their cars instead.
A judge at Brussels Criminal Court heard the man in his 40s stole a cycle in October and has 17 previous convictions.
The judge said: ‘It is therefore advisable to severely punish the defendant who commits crimes the gravity of which is important for the planet, since the victim deprived of his bicycle has no other option than to use a more polluting means of transport.
Ecological crimes are usually restricted to actions that have a more direct impact on the environment, like polluting rivers or emitting greenhouse gases.
But campaigners are increasingly calling for the scope of such crimes to be greatly widened.
