Up to 19 months in prison for stealing millions in electronics from Schiphol warehouse

The court in Haarlem sentenced four men to up to 19 months in prison for stealing over 2.5 dollars worth of electronics from a warehouse at Schiphol in June 2019. Three other suspects were acquitted, NU.nl reports.

The thieves stole smartphones, drones, and cameras, among other things. They also took dozens of boxes of garden lighting, which were recovered in a warehouse in Beverwijk later in 2019. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) described the theft as “tightly planned and professionally executed.” The suspects had inside help and used trucks with fake license plates, the OM said.

The court accused the men of “only having eyes for their own financial gain” and giving the companies at Schiphol a bad name. It sentenced four men to prison for 16, 18, and 19 months. They must also pay back the money they made from the theft. The other three suspects were acquitted.

The sentences were considerably lower than the OM’s recommendation of between 22 and 57 months in prison. The court said it looked at comparable cases when imposing sentences and lowered them a bit because the case took a long time.