Brother Confesses Crimes After 18 Years... Awesome :squeeze:

[Bro.David Drake DeLaurento]

What bold and brave courage for him and his family!!! This is what being a true servant of Jehovah is all about. Its about showing love to your Creator and Father. He could of easily said what is in the past is in the past. Action speaks louder than words.

A 77-YEAR-OLD man who says he has found God has confessed to torching his car and house in an insurance scam nearly two decades ago.

The Supreme Court in Hobart heard Blackmans Bay man Jan Kikkert could no longer live with the guilt of two insurance frauds that netted him and his wife close to $100,000 in 1994 and 1995.

"My first allegiance is to the creator," the Jehovah's Witness explained to officers after walking into a Hobart police station last year and confessing to two long-forgotten arsons committed 18 years earlier.

But police had long stopped investigating the separate albeit highly suspicious fires that destroyed the couple's car and Primrose Sands home and, if not for his unprompted confession, he would never have been charged.

The first crime involved Kikkert placing a home-made incendiary device comprising an ice-cream bucket filled with petrol and a floating candle in the footwell of his Mazda 626 back in 1994.

The car was parked outside his Blackmans Bay property and before lighting the candle he smashed a window and tampered with a lock in an effort to fool police.

The car was destroyed by the resulting fire and the Kikkerts pocketed $10,200 from the insurance claim.

A year later and in need of funds to build a new home on his block of land at Blackmans Bay, Kikkert struck again, this time upgrading the homemade incendiary device used from an ice-cream bucket to a 12-litre drum.

He told police he and his wife had been renovating their second property at Primrose Sands so it could be rented out, but apparently they had a change of heart in April, 1995.

After telling his wife to take their two children out to the car while visiting the property, Kikkert placed the drum in the house's living area and turned off the electricity in case the insurance company refused the claim in the mistaken belief the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

A neighbour called triple in the early hours of the morning and firefighters arrived to find the house engulfed by flames.

While firefighters determined the blaze to be deliberate, police were unable to prove who was responsible and the Kikkerts received an $86,000 insurance payout.

That would have been the end of it but the couple divorced in 2007 and the newly-remarried Mr Kikkert, who became a Jehovah's Witness in 2004, apparently decided he could no longer live with the burden of his crimes.

"He told police his first allegiance was to the creator," prosecutor Yolanda Prenc said. Kikkert was remanded to be sentenced on April 23.

[Simon17]

He was actually charged? How had the statute of limitations not run out?

He shouldn't be charged but I suppose he should return what he could of the money.

[Brother_Bliss]

He was actually charged? How had the statute of limitations not run out?

He shouldn't be charged but I suppose he should return what he could of the money.

I found this source for the article...

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/04/16/319251_scalesofjustice.html

It's in Australia. They might not have statutes of limitations like we do here in the states for crimes like that.

[Bro.David Drake DeLaurento]

True dat!! But that takes fortitude.... to do what he did. Im sure that he will just have to pay restitution. He's elderly so I dont see the system REALLY going after this brother.

[sunshine]

What a story... he'll probably have to make monthly payments ... there's no price for a clean conscience!

Good on him!!