After Googling around, I have to conclude that the above was a wrong assumption on my part:
Also from the above article:
I apologize for my careless error.
Incidentally, in July New Taipei City said it planned to auction the company’s bicycles:
You need to talk to someone at a newspaper. Tell them what happened down to the last detail. There’s NO WAY this doesn’t make the paper. I could be wrong, but I think the more attention this gets the better it will be for you.
How can I do this? I do not know anyone working for any newspaper. I used to have a customer who worked for Taipei Times but he no longer works there. Can you put me in contact with them?
I’m not sure if contacting with media is a good idea, but if you want to do, this kind of pages?
Is that necessarily a good idea? It’s hard to say which way any publicity could swing
I don’t know any national media types, only some local guys who report on Taitung. And yes, as @tando says you want to be very careful with this.
I suggest it because it sounds like your situation is very serious and money is an obstacle. Sometimes drawing attention to these things can help. It’s also a great news story involving a foreigner, so I’m sure one of the news outlets would pick it up.
But yeah, be careful.
Just go to the bloody Prosecutor’s Office and explain your financial situation. See what they say.
It’s going to cost them a lot more to incarcerate you for 6 months than 180k.
I remember someone posted on forumosa he was worked as cheap labor during his incarceration, so I guess money / cost to hold him won’t be a factor.
Even so, doing the obvious stuff first would be best. Getting the free legal advice, asking the people who are in a position to possibly change incarceration to community service…
臺灣新北地方檢察署 * 首頁 * 為民服務 * 辦理民眾聲請事項及程序
聲請易科罰金
I didn’t find an instruction for 聲請社會勞動 on New Taipei prosecutors office site, but it may be almost the same with the Kaohsiung one. found
I think if you want a community service rather than a fine, you need to do 聲請社會勞動 before you do 聲請易科罰金. If your request to do a community service is rejected, you can request to pay a fine.
If the help you need is to know how to request to do a community service instead of jail time, the easiest way may be to visit the prosecutors office and tell at an information/reception counter (or to anyone there, non visitors of course, if you cannot find the kind of counter) that you want to do 聲請易服社會勞動. The person will tell you where you should go to do it.
Added:
If your petition for Commutation of Imprisonment to a community service is rejected, you do this.
File a Petition for Commutation of Imprisonment to a Fine
"Bicycle theft is barely considered a crime in Taiwan. Police don’t care and nobody with a bike worth more than a few bucks even owns a lock because it could never be left outside."
Every bike I’ve had here but one, must be 30-40 or so, I stole.
They all appeared to have been abandoned and most of them came off the “abandoned bike” dump at the university.
I got stopped by an owner once, ironically for one of the worst ones. Gave them it back and a couple of hundred because a pedal had worked loose while I was riding it.
I suppose I’ve had a lucky escape…
Found a university MOTORCYCLE dump a few months ago, apparently unsecured, with some nice ones, though I suppose they’ll be trashed or gone by now. Such a waste…
Was tempted…BUT…
You were lucky…
My dad told me I should not appeal because he said the sentence is actually very lenient. Even on the judgment itself the judge felt appropriate to punish me financially rather than taking away my freedom. It just seems easier for me to just pay the fine and be done with it. I’m going to try and start a gofundme or something or maybe I can just post here? I don’t know of a Taiwanese crowdfunding platform but if anyone is willing to help me pay the fine I’d be willing to build you a guitar for the trouble. Take it as a form of community service.
This is so frustrating.
Please, just go and ask them whether they could accept community service. You have nothing to lose by doing that.
By the way, the fine for a non-violent crime of 6 months or less is standard in Taiwan. The judge wasn’t giving you special treatment.
I was just hoping for a suspended sentence but it wasn’t mentioned in the judgment so I guess not. But suspended sentence has conditions of paying a fine, apologizing to the victim, community service, etc and if you fail you go straight to jail. They can suspend a sentence of up to 2 years so it seems to be harsher than a sentence of 6 months as the suspension could quite lengthy (like 5 years) and you can’t leave the country in the meantime.
Maybe you can sell your story to Apple news.
Give them a paid interview telling everyone your story while apologizing to the public and warning everyone not to fall into the same trap.
Also I should mention in a summary judgment they can’t sentence me more than what they are giving me. For that they would have to indict. So I guess if the prosecutor was having a bad day they could have gone ahead with a normal indictment and that would be more stress.
But I kinda hoped for a suspended sentence but the fine could have been the same, and you can’t get out of that by petitioning for community service.
However I do need the money on me when they summon me or at least able to pay first installment…
Also the judge can’t sentence me to less because the law says 6 months minimum. I think his hands were tied
In your post Tai, you say you have a bunch of oBikes at home, I suspect that might have something to do with the ‘big’ penalty - you didn’t just take one, it looks as though you are trying to profit from them.
No, it was abandoned outside my home. I tried using the service but the app was not there and the website was not working. I then found out that the company went bust a while ago and wrongly thought I can just use it for myself.
I couldn’t profit from it, the bike is a piece of shit and people wouldn’t take it if you gave it to them for free, and they’re worth maybe 70nt in scrap value. The city is losing a LOT more money auctioning the bike off from all the collection and storage that they had to do than what they’ll get from it.
And customers are ripped off because they weren’t getting their deposit back. Why they aren’t prosecuting the company operator criminally is beyond me.