crime doesn't pay

crime doesn't pay

proverb Ultimately, crime does not benefit the criminal, and only results in negative consequences. The billboards are designed as reminders that even minor fraud convictions carry serious consequences—crime doesn't pay.
See also: crime, pay
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Crime doesn't pay.

Prov. Crime will ultimately not benefit a person. No matter how tempting it may appear, crime doesn't pay.
See also: crime, pay
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

crime does not pay

Lawbreakers do not benefit from their actions. For example, Steve didn't think it mattered that he stole a candy bar, but he's learned the hard way that crime does not pay . This maxim, originating as a slogan of the F.B.I. and given wide currency by the cartoon character Dick Tracy, was first recorded in 1927. There have been numerous jocular plays on it, as in Woody Allen's screenplay for Take the Money and Run (1969): "I think crime pays. The hours are good, you travel a lot."
See also: crime, does, not, pay
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • teach a man to fish
  • village
  • it takes a village
  • for want of a nail
  • For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse ...
  • chickens come home to roost
  • chickens come home to roost, one's
  • a burnt child dreads the fire
  • burnt
  • best-laid plans go astray, the
References in periodicals archive
This has now seen a substantial amount of money identified for seizure and proves that crime doesn't pay. A jail term does not mean the end of our enquiries."
Summary: Whoever said crime doesn't pay failed to mention that the exception is when you have the Trump administration in your corner.
Confiscating the ill-gotten gains of fraudsters, drug dealers and money launderers plays a vital role in proving crime doesn't pay.
We will use all legislation available to us to recover money and assets obtained by criminals to ensure that crime doesn't pay."
A LEADER of the Hatton Garden heist said crime doesn't pay as he was given an extra three years in jail for another jewellery raid.
Who says crime doesn't pay? In this instance - not to mention many more - it certainly has.
A huge total of PS17,026,411 has been stripped from drug dealers and fraudsters across the region over the last five years in a bid to show offenders that 'crime doesn't pay.' From April 2012, financial investigators working in the Economic Crime Unit have been recovering cash obtained from criminal activities under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The huge sum was stripped from drug dealers and fraudsters across the region over the past five years in a bid to prove "crime doesn't pay".
"Drugs can cause misery within our communities and this case reinforces the message that crime doesn't pay; even after a conviction we will seek to claw back any ill-gotten gains."
Ffion Tomos, prosecuting, said, "Messages suggested she was making as much as PS1,000 a week and she boasted in one message about this and added 'Who says crime doesn't pay?'".
Crime doesn't pay, and in "A Kind of Murder," neither does fantasizing about it.
Tc07310005 Who says crime doesn't pay - should have got prison time.
When your life has been touched in any way by crime you want to know that crime doesn't pay, ever.
It begins with A Robber's Tale, focusing on Bruce Reynolds (Luke Evans), who seems to be on a mission to disprove the old saying that crime doesn't pay.
"Nice people already realise crime doesn't pay and when other people are painting graffiti you are creating crime and it's not having the desired effect."