Yeah, you're probably right, I didn't really know how it would pan out, but as it is, not much about politics in here. If mods want to move it to the blogs area or wherever it belongs, I have no objections.

Just thought you have has a life that could make a good book (or the basis of a Netflix series). Might earn some dosh while you're at it.

Ok. Have you ever thought about doing something academic more formally? You're obviously bright and interested, you might find it very rewarding.

You're a reg, so I'm fine with it. It can be beneficial in a politics forum to sometimes see the people behind posts.

Though future such posts from regs should ask the mods first. Not that I think we will be overrun by such posts, but for principle.

When you think this is done or enough time has passed, we'll lock it. So there is no danger of it becoming a blog.

I really don't think my life is anywhere interesting enough for a book or a film without some major embellishments, James Frey style. I'm certainly no Henry Hill or Frank Abagnale (incidentally though, Catch Me If You Can was an inspiration for my scheme).

I had in the past thought about getting a formal education; one of the things I had considered was becoming a lawyer - not sure what Rococo would make of that lol. I have read a lot of appellate court cases (both UK and US) and also a couple of books on jurisprudence and found it all very interesting.

I don't think I would really enjoy formal education though, for a number of different reasons. I'll probably just stick to what I've been doing, which is reading a lot about a wide variety of topics, but not in any particularly organised manner. To that end, I have found some of the more high-content threads in this forum to be very informative.

Ok, thanks TD. Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission

I mean, I don't think I would start a thread like this outside this forum anyway, since it's really intended for posters with whom I interact here. I don't really post in the other subs.

You might enjoy it, but in the U.S., a criminal conviction for stealing a large amount of money could make it hard for you to get admitted to the bar. Not sure about the UK.

Also, you can't go on benders that cause you to blow deadlines and miss court appearances. That's a good way to get sued for malpractice.

Basically, I just want to be the James Spader character from Boston Legal lol.

Hello.
Do you think you could have gotten away with stealing from the law firm if you were smarter about it/stole less? I was surprised reading that story that it took so long for you to get caught.

Would you get upset after losing a 10k pool match, or did you expect to lose?

Did you ever win any HS pool matches?

Would the pool sharks try to hustle you to move up in stakes? Or did they not need to because you were already willing to play high stakes vs better players.

I can pretty much predict his answer to these questions.

If I was stealing in a more sophisticated way, then maybe, but at any significant amount, I was bound to get caught pretty quickly based on the way I was stealing.

Yes and Yes.

Of course.

The latter.

How did you go from working in IT to being a contractor?

Cranford - pretty much exactly what Rococo said. A couple of minor additions:

Re: getting away with it - no, it was a stupid scheme, and required me to fudge the monthly recs. I was always going to get caught eventually, but maybe if it was a relatively small amount they might have just fired me and not called the cops. As it was, I actually set off a money laundering flag on one of my accounts, and when the bank investigated they went to the company and asked them why they were paying me all this money and they were like "erm, what money?" Then it all unravelled pretty quickly from there as you can imagine. I learnt about all this when I saw my indictment.

Re: pool games. What Rococo said. As an interesting tidbit, I saw a thread in NVG a few years back about one of those guys. He was really good at pool (prob one of the best players in Boston at the time, I think Corey Deuel wouldn't give him more than the 7 or 8 ball when they played, and Corey won the US 9-Ball Open the previous year) but a total scumbag, and he also tried to get me in a blackjack game with a marked deck. I'll let you judge from this thread whether he ever changed his ways.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...event-1618551/

If anyone here knows Tony, he'll probably remember me.

I'm guilty of throwing around the term "contractor" forgetting that it means different things in different industries and different places. I am using it to mean someone who works on contract as opposed to holding a permanent position - i.e. you work for a client for a fixed term and bill a day rate rather than being a full time employee. I've been doing that for the last 15+ years, but still in IT/software development.

Whats your yearly salary? What % of your paycheck goes to taxes? Also what did you study in uni?

I pull in £150-£200k most years. I am responsible for my own taxes, as opposed to being taxed at source, so that is going to be one of those questions I decline to answer. Standard for my income would be about £40-£70k, depending on personal circumstances. I didn't go to uni, I dropped out of school at 16 in fact. I'm an autodidact.

LOL. I also have been a gambler ever since I was a little kid. I guess that I know how those guys think.

Have you committed any serious crimes since you got out of jail?

For obvious reasons I don't want to discuss anything on which the statute of limitations has not run, but like I said, I am responsible for my own taxes.

Anything unrelated to taxes?

If you didn't have enough income to support your gambling habit, do you think that you are still capable of committing theft, fraud, etc., in order to get money to gamble?

Nope, squeaky clean. Realistically, the only thing I'd theoretically be in danger of is catching a DUI, and I haven't owned (or even driven) a car since I got back to the UK. I don't even have a license here.

What about the other question?

Capable technically or morally?

I guess what I am asking is the following: You don't seem like a criminal. Do you worry that you would be susceptible to engaging in serious criminal behavior again if you found yourself in a situation where you were unable to support your gambling habit?

It's hard to say what people are capable of when desperate. I'd like to think that's all behind me, but I'd also be lying if I said I had much moral compunction about defrauding a bank out of a few mill if I thought I could get away with it. Which I suppose, brings us to our second point - I don't think I'd have the technical ability to do it any more, security features have really advanced since the last time I knew what I was doing in this milieu, so I really doubt I have the ability to pull off some massive cyber-heist. Can't say I haven't thought about it though.

I mean, I wouldn't go bilking old ladies out of their retirement money, I do take a view that not all stealing is the same. In fact, I think some practices which are legal and designed to scam the most vulnerable in society are much more morally abhorrent than pulling off some sort of Ocean's 11 type heist. YMMV.

It isn't just the moral component. Stealing a few million from anyone is going to expose you to massive criminal liability. Exposing yourself to criminal liability for the greater glory of giving your stolen money to the on-line gaming industry wouldn't be a great life decision.

But you know that already.

I think we've seen that making great life decisions is not my forte