The court has three years in prison, half of whom were conditional, imposed on a 32-year-old man from Meppel for committing several armed robberies in the center of his hometown.
The man is said to have attacked a clothing store, beauty salon and a snack bar in January of this year. De Meppeler is said to have had a balaclava on his head, have shown a knife to the staff and have instructed them to get money from the cash register.
During the substantive handling of the case, the man admitted that he had committed the robberies and said he was “outrageous”. He stated “not himself” at the time of the robberies and to have been under the influence of a serious addiction to different types of drugs.
According to the court, De Meppeler only had an eye for his own financial gain and not for the consequences for the victims. In that sense, the court found it particularly serious that the Meppeler had threatened a knife, because experience shows that victims of such offenses “will experience adverse psychological consequences for a long time.”
The Public Prosecution Service initially demanded four years in prison. However, the court has taken into account the addiction problems of the man. Partly for this reason, the court also imposed a conditional punishment to move him to be treated for his drug addiction. “That he will not be seduced again in the future to let himself in with these kinds of facts for financial gain.”