In the current UK political / prison system I would hazard a guess that John and Anne Darwin will probably serve 3 years each of both their six year sentences. Yet I can’t help wonder if their prison sentences fit the crime ?

I am a strong believer that if you do the crime - you should do the “time” but in the exact same afternoon that the news was released about the Darwin’s, I have been watching an excellent TV program on the BBC called “Cars, Cops and Criminals” which this week was following police as they prevent thieves from breaking into cars in the upmarket streets of Chelsea and fight the rise in high-value freight crime. One of the story lines concerned the catching of a persistent car criminal via what the police term a “Rat Trap” and the courts hand out a four month suspended sentence and 100x hours of community service! Well I’m sure that will dissuade the criminal from further crime LOL … as if !

Surely the personnel and equipment cost of the policing involved in the “Rat Trap” case, along with the court system costs as well as the wider costs of the multitude of actual crimes this one criminal is responsible for is of equal grotesqueness to the lost souls of the Darwin’s who chose a chicken’s way out of dealing with their financial mismanagement ???

What message does such inequalities of sentencing teach folk ?
Hey…. steal off the general public, damage property and terrorise your neighborhood and the courts will basically smile and let you off. Dare to steal from rich corporate insurance firms and cheat on the government and your going to be punished and sent to prison !!!

Common sense is not very common any more.