Chaytor, 18 months first offence? ..bit harsh

[R1Geezer]

Now don't get me wrong I'm delighted to have a Noo Labour luvvie banged up but I can't help feeling that the sentance was a bit harsh. I mean there are burglars who have to do 20+ burglaries to get jailed. Is this a sentance designed to please the public? Would an unknown member of the public get 18months for arf inching 18k?

[jno]

I have no problem with MPs getting big sentences, since their job involves passing laws in the first place. They ought to be the first to obey them. All the same, you'd have to think he was much less likely to reoffend than the average burglar.

[anotheoldgit]

Must agree, a person who is put in the position of a MP must show his public that he can be trusted.

When he is found out to be fraudulently extracting public money for his own gains, then he should be made an example of, and feel the whole weight of the law down upon himself.

[sir.prize]

. . . and hopefully there will be more joining Chaytor very soon.

[wolf63]

If he had defrauded the govt/us by one false incident then I may have had some sympathy for the guy - but he made several claims that were blatantly dishonest and, if this the punishment for the crime that he deserves to go to jail for this period. Greed and nothing more.

I, like many millions of others, get frustrated at the sentences that the Law allows the courts to give to criminals. I read in a magazine the other week of two sentences meted out in the US. One guy got 75 years in prison and the other 4 death oenalties - you can be that those two won't reoffend.

[eyethenkyew]

It's not the fact that he's a first time offender, it's down to the fact that the guy was in such a privileged occupation, i.e. one of public trust as an MP which has contributed to his incarceration.

I have no sympathy for someone who deliberately put himself in a position of serving the public - purportedly - but who instead was helping himself to money at public expense. The sentence appears to reflect that, for I'm fairly sure that had Mr Chaytor been me or "just another person" he'd probably have received community service instead.

His liberty is the price he has paid - and justifiably in my opinion.

[modeller]

What is noticable is the lack of comment from our leaders . They haven't said a word in favour of the verdict . Hardly surprising being as some of the biggest culprits have been welcomed back into parliament and most MPs are expressing sympathy for a crook..
The MPs view is best summed up by the MP

[modeller]

cont: The MPs view is best summed up by the Labour MP Barry Sheerman who described Chaytor as " The straightest person that most of us knew " Of course he was speaking as an MP and by their standards Chaytor is bordering on sainthood, and had it been left to them they would still be ripping us off . Even now they are trying to get rid of the independant review into their actions. I would use the word fiddles but of course in most cases they were only playing by their own rules.

[andy-hughes]

If Chator wass 'the straightest man' i ever Knew, I'd be pruning my list of preiends with some vigour!

This is a man who invoved his mother in a rental fraud while she is in a nursing home with dimentia, and his daughter, whom her pursuaded to sign documents allowing him to claim rent on a flat he already owned.

Involving your family in such theft is beyond contepmt, so Jonathan Aitken is giving out sage words of wisdom in the Mirror today about life in prison is a bit rich - he perjured his own daughter in his fiddles!

[eyethenkyew]

tommyboy99,

"he will be out in 4 months". How do you figure that out? 9 months, maybe, but 4? Are you sure you've got your facts right?

[brionon]

' New' and 'sentence'.

[andy-hughes]

tommyboy99 - according to the media, for a non-vioment crime, he will be released in four months on parole with a tag and curfew.

[thebarron]

what about the rest

[ELVIS68]

He`ll suffer from being away from his family, not eating proper meals, lack of sleep etc

I`m talking about when he`s in the Jungle next year with Ant n Dec

[andy-hughes]

Lol Elvis!

[murraymints]

would you feel the same sympathy for Joe Bloggs claiming 18k housing benefit for renting a property he already owned ?? methinks not !!

[mike11111]

Many a true word... Elvis.

[Ankou]

i hope he gets the tag off before going on strictly.