Two boys convicted of Ruter fraud on behalf of Anniken Huitfeldt

Two teenage boys were given suspended prison terms for buying bus tickets using the leaked personal details of a number of Storting politicians.

It was from the winter of 2020 until April 2021 that Romerike’s two boys carried out the frauds.

During this time, the two boys bought, or attempted to buy, Ruter tickets on behalf of some current and former Storting and local politicians, including Anniken Huitfeldt (AP), Mette Hanekamhaug (FRP), Jan Arild Ellingsen (FRP ), Torgeir Micaelsen (AP), Åse Michaelsen (FRP) and Ingrid Heggø (AP).

In total, the boys defrauded a total of NOK 30,850 and attempted to defraud for a further NOK 37,102.

On Monday, the two were sentenced by Romerike and Glåmdal District Court to 21 and 28 days in suspended prison respectively.

Bored and wanted to take the bus

The frauds started after one of the two boys heard about a fraud method in the Ruter app in the winter of 2020.

By logging in with your name, social security number and postal code, you could order Ruter tickets for yourself, while the bill was subsequently invoiced to the person who, to Ruter, appeared to have purchased the ticket.

At the same time, the boy found a list of leaked personal information of a number of Storting politicians. Later he also found a list of personal data of politicians from a municipality in the interior.

– The reason was boredom and little money, they wanted to ride the bus around, says the ruling.

Many of the ticket purchases were discovered en route to be forged by Ruter’s billing partner Arvato and were canceled before the ticket was used. For the ticket purchases made, Arvato canceled the invoices and assumed the loss itself.

Purchased for NOK 10,000 in Huitfeldt’s name

The fraud committed on behalf of Anniken Huitfeldt, the Norwegian foreign minister since last autumn, was the one with the largest amount. The two boys made two purchases worth NOK 10,385 and attempted to make four more purchases worth NOK 2,138.

NTB has asked the Foreign Ministry for a comment from Huitfeldt, but the communications department writes that it will not comment on the matter.