Sega accused of using police to recover Nintendo devkits it had "negligently disposed of"

[Cerebralbore101]

mjk45 said:

psychicscubadiver said:

Okay? I never said the dude should be prosecuted for buying stolen goods, only that the stolen goods should be returned to their rightful owner. 

As to the bolded how are they destroying the guy's life? I get that 10,000 pounds is not a small amount but he hasn't been jailed for any crimes and 10K is hardly life-ruining for someone that owns a business, especially since the article never alleges that this will cause him to go bankrupt. It would be nice if Sega would compensate him what he spent, assuming it is their fault and he can show receipts for what he paid, but regardless the consoles were not theirs to sell and should be restored to their rightful owner.

The buyer has recourse in the form of requesting  their money back from the 3rd party contractor or suing them for false pretences, now if the contractor is sensible they would simply  admit they weren't made aware by Sega of the kits status and so mistakingly sold the kit as part of the stock sale and then  give the money back. along with an apology.

I mostly agree with this. Assuming the buyer isn't lying to Time Extension, this is the route Sega/Scrapyard (whoever sold the kits to him) should have taken. But that alone is a massive assumption.

Just one small issue.  Nintendo dev kits clearly say sale prohibited on them. This is why I said earlier that it's common knowledge with resellers and high end collectors that this stuff is always the property of Nintendo. So the buyer not having a clue that these things were not the rightful property of Sega or the scrapyard isn't going to hold up in court. There's no playing dumb here. Especially not with the reseller knowing full well these came from a nearby devsite closure. 

Last edited by Cerebralbore101 - on 16 September 2025