During the 2018 London Marathon last April, a runner named Jake Halliday lost his race number after taking off his shirt before the finish line. A homeless man named Stanislaw Skupian later crossed the finish line with the number and posed for photos.
At the time, there was a lot of noise in the media about the photo and whether Skupian found or stole the number and the fact that he had tried to claim that he had run the race.
Fast forward to today and a magistrate has sentenced him to 16 weeks in jail. According to the media sources, Skupian had pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and to three unrelated counts of theft. 13 weeks are for the fraud and three weeks are for the theft offences.
London marathon chief executive, Nick Bitel also said the episode could be seen to damage the reputation and integrity of the race, regarded by him as one of the best organised in the world.
Links...
Man jailed for using someone else's London marathon number... Guardian
London Marathon cheat Stanislaw Skupian jailed for fraud... BBC
‘The London marathon chief executive, Nick Bitel, said the episode could be seen to damage the reputation and integrity of the race, regarded as one of the best organised in the world, the court heard.
ReplyDeleteGive me a break. The fact that they overcharge charities for the marathon spots has already damaged the reputation and integrity of the race.
The sentence seems excessive to me. Maybe I'm missing something, but surely there are worse crimes being committed in London.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that but it did say that there were unrelated crimes as well However he only got 3 weeks for the thefts and 14 weeks for the 'fraud'. It was said that he was found in the possession of someone else's ID card as well.
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