Swedish Hell's Angels find biking gets you down
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Stockholm chapter of the biker gang Hell's Angels is being investigated for fraud after police found 70 percent of members were certified as depressed by the same doctor and were getting state sickness benefits.
"It seems to be depressing being a member of this club," Christer Nilsson, deputy head of Stockholm police's criminal investigation department, told newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Biker gangs like the Hell's Angels and their deadly rivals the Bandidos have a history of violent crime in Scandinavia including shootouts and bomb attacks, but have also branched out into benefit and tax frauds in recent years, police say.
Sweden has estimated that as much as a fifth of the workforce is on long-term sick leave or early retirement due to sickness, often put down to "burn-out" and the government has been cracking down on fraud to get more people back to work.
© Reuters 2006.
"Dude, wanna go get ripped and start a bar fight? " "I dunno man, I'm just don't feel into it right now."