Sent death threats to Lånekassen

On September 2nd, a 46 year old man was sentenced to 15 days' imprisonment for having put forward serious threats in a telephone conversation with one of Lånekassen’s (Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund) case officers.

It was December 14th last year that the man called Lånekassen because he wanted to avoid paying a late fee. It came to 280 NOK, which he thought was too much. The man is paying down your student loan by 560 NOK monthly, and the fee was therefore more than half of the monthly sum to Lånekassen.

– Quite arrogant

He asked the case officer permission not to pay but was told it was not possible. When he asked to speak with her boss instead, he got the answer that that was the Chancellor of the Exchequer herself, Siv Jensen.

– He did not at first understand what she said. Being referred to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he perceived as quite arrogant, the man’s defender, Øivind Østberg tells.

The 46-year-old then asked to speak with her regular boss, unsuccessfully. In the Courts of Appeal he explained that he felt he was not taken seriously, and that he therefore «lost his temper». That was when he put forward a desire to «bash the skull» of the case officer, in addition to several other threats of severe physical violence.

– Legitimate question

Although the penalties for serious threats usually are 15 to 30 days unconditional sentence, the Courts of Appeal decided that the prison sentence would be set at 15 days probation. They emphasized Lånekassen’s lack of courtesy in the telephone conversation between the accused and the case officer.

– The court took into account that he was treated in a condescending way when he came with a legitimate request, said Østberg.

The sentence most important

CEO of Lånekassen, Marianne Andersen, did not want to go into whether the caseworker was uncourteous in its treatment of the 46-year-old.

– We are very pleased that there is a verdict. We take employees subjected to threats very seriously and we will report all such cases. Fortunately we don’t have many of them. It concerns the employees having a safe working environment.

When the Court of Appeal puts so much emphasis on Lånekassen’s lack of courtesy in this matter, what are your thoughts about that?

– This is an issue that has been under consideration by the courts. It would be wrong of me to go into details of this case. What is important is that we have received a judgment.

Irritated at the state

The Court of Appeal also viewed it as mitigating that the threats were submitted over the phone and the statements were directed at Lånekassen itself, not the case officer. Østberg asserts that the convicted 46-year-old knew that the case officer couldn’t do much.

– He understands that the case officer has no authority over the stipulated rules, and that there therefore is little room to exercise discretion. What he initially was annoyed at was that the state can operate with late payment fees far higher than any private businesses can allow themselves to do. He was a little late in making the payment, and had to pay 50 percent extra, says Østberg, adding:

– He made statements that he strongly regrets and acknowledges that it qualifies for punishment.

Despite the fact that the threats were made by telephone and that the court therefore considered that mitigating, Andersen is satisfied.

– It is interesting that we get a sentence relating to one of those types of threat, since it is by phone.