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CASH DEPOT ROBBERY

HELICOPTER

New arrest in helicopter heist probe

Police in Sweden have arrested another suspect in the helicopter-aided robbery of a cash depot in the Stockhlm suburb of Västberga last month.

New arrest in helicopter heist probe

The 31-year-old suspect is a resident of Norsborg south of Stockholm and has been wanted on an arrest warrant since September 27th suspected of aggravated robbery.

The man was arrested around 6pm on Monday evening in Stockholm after turning himself in voluntarily.

“We’ve held a short introductory interview with him in which he denies committing any crime. We plan to hold a more in-depth interrogation in the afternoon after which I’m going to decide what should happen with his continued detention,” prosecutor Leif Görtz told the TT news agency.

Görtz refused to say exactly what the 31-year-old is suspected of doing or what evidence there is against him.

The suspect is known to police for having committed previous offences.

In February 2005, the 31-year-old was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison by the Nacka District Court for helping plan the robbery of an amoured car a year earlier in Fisksätra centrum in Nacka, southeast of Stockholm.

The Svea Court of Appeal altered the conviction, however, and in May 2005 sentenced the man to six months in prison for preparation to commit a theft.

The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the plans made by the 31-year-old and his accomplice were really in preparation for a robbery.

Five other men have already been remanded in custody for their suspected involvement in the spectacular robbery of the G4S cash depot.

Three other suspects have been taken in for questioning and then released.

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FINANCE

Is Denmark’s government about to send you an enormous cheque?

Several of Denmark's political parties want to release part or all of Danish residents''frozen holiday money' ahead of the summer break, meaning a cheque of up to 24,500 kroner for someone earning 350,000 kroner a year. And some want to go even further and give out 'helicopter money'.

Is Denmark's government about to send you an enormous cheque?
The government wants to put money in the hands of citizens. Photo: Bax Lindhardt/SP/Ritzau Scanpix
The Red Green Alliance is pushing for the government to mail out 10,000 kroner (€1,341) tax-free cheques to all earning less than 32,000 kroner (€4,292) a month. 
 
The political parties are set later this week to begin negotiating the so-called 'summer package', a stimulus package designed to encourage people in Denmark to spend more money in local businesses, hotels and cultural institutions during their summer staycations. 
 
“There is not much you can say against this, and that is why it is an incredibly important part of our deliberations,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told DR on Tuesday evening. .
 
“We think it is natural that when we discuss the end of the aid packages, that we also discuss the long-term economy. For example, it could also be holiday money.” 
 
The 100bn kroner in 'frozen holiday money' exists because Denmark has changed the way people build up holiday allowances as they work. Under the old scheme, you built up the allowance over a year and could only take it after the following May. Under the new one, you earn 2.08 days of holiday a month, which can be used immediately. 
 
Because people in Denmark would have earned double holiday money during the transition between the two systems, the government decided to only let them access the so-called 'frozen money' on retirement. 
 
 
As well as seeing the sense of releasing the holiday money, Frederiksen on Tuesday said she also understood some of the advantages of 'helicopter money' payments, which can channel money to those most likely to spend it. 
 
“That's something I have a great deal of sympathy for, and I can see that many economists support helicopter money,” she said, referring to the Red Green Alliance's proposal.
 
“It is reminiscent of the discussion we are having right now on holiday money. But we are going to be the boring party and point out that there is an economy we need to take care of on the other side of the crisis as well.” 
 
The government hopes to carry out political discussions over the summer package with other parties at the end of this week. 
 
The Danish People's Party, the Conservative Party, the New Right, and the Liberal Alliance are pushing to have the holiday money paid out ahead of the summer holiday as part of a stimulus package. 
 
The Confederation of Danish Employers and the Danish Trade Union Confederation also believe that the holiday money should be paid out.
 

And even Torben M. Andersen, the Aarhus University economics professor who chairs the government's economics expert group, supports the idea.  
 
“It will trigger such large payments to the citizen that it can probably do the work and get enough demand and consumption started in a first round of economic recovery,” he told the Politiken newspaper. 
 
 
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