Punishment fits the crime?

[hughnique]

Or does it, one of the BBC, chasing villain's progs this morning, told the tale of an Indian restaurant owner that had been fiddling his books and under declaring his true takings. When caught and sentenced he was given something like a couple of years inside, in comparison a few days ago someone, can't remember who, was spouting off about how overcrowded the prisons in the UK were and that the UK had the highest prison population in Europe. Well surprise surprise, it has always been my view, that the judiciary, is so keen to bang them all up that they lose sight of the fact surrounding the reason why these people commit these frauds. Greed nothing other than that, and the best way IMHO of dissuading this greed is to impose severe financial penalties to the offenders. Lock them up for a few years, at what cost to the general public and taxpayer, take the business, take the house, sell it of and pay back the VAT and tax from the proceeds, ignore the fact that the house and everything else is in the wife's name, you are married tough, you take a share in your husbands antics, probably having benefited from his unlawful activities. Rapists, murderers, child molesters, anyone who is a violent offender , lock them up but these sorts of crimes can be dealt with in other ways

[Bayleaf]

I lost track and thought you were talking about crooked, greedy politicians! They pretty much get away with moider.

[niemeyjt]

It's simple.

Pleb on pleb crimes like muggings, burglaries and stabbings - if even investigated - get a smack on the wrist.

Crime that reduces the revenues for our beloved politicians to p1ss up the wall must be severely punished.

[Hotrodder]

Interesting what Hugh says about the prison population in UK.
I read somewhere that there are more people (per capita) in prison in the USA than anywhere else in the world. Can't get my head around the reason for such high numbers. Then I read further that prisoners are made to work (for peanuts) on products for the government. Not just the old classic........car numberplates.

[hughnique]

The same can be said of UK prisons, I think the days of sowing up mailbags might be gone but someone told me that when they were at an open prison they were making up ceiling roses and lamp holders, known as pendant sets, for a commercial company, again getting peanuts, which they had to spend in the prison shop.