Evening Press Reader's Letter

In the Evening Press of December 1, it was reported that burglars convicted of three crimes could expect a sentence of about 19 months, but the Home Secretary announced that as from December 1 they would face a minimum of three years in jail.

On page one of the same edition, it was reported that a man convicted of 25 burglaries last summer, netting him £30,000 worth of property, was given two years' probation by York Crown Court.

What encouragement does a sentence like that give to the police to make arrests? I read somewhere that they had to fill in 41 forms to get an offender to court.

No doubt had the York offender been a few years younger the 'do-gooders' would have recommended he be awarded a Caribbean holiday or a Kenya safari!

Lee Graham,

The Pastures,

Carlton,

Goole.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.