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Class-based injustice?

Linus Dunce

14:53 / 21.11.03

The Coughing Major is let off again!

So, after being let off attempting to steal a million quid from a TV company, he tries to dishonestly milk an insurance company for a couple of grand and gets let off again. Why?

Judge Samuel Wiggs told Bournemouth Crown Court that Ingram, of the High Street, Easterton, Wiltshire, was a man who had already been severely punished as he had lost out financially and was on the brink of bankruptcy.

That is to say, because he's broke! Is that normally a viable defence? I don't think so.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:17 / 22.11.03

It's normally the excuse used by people such as Jonathan Aitken for not paying any legal fees, sign everything over to your wife, divorce them, then continue to live together as before, but you're now officially bankrupt so can't be touched for cash.

Slightly different in this case. But I presume that he was being sued for breach of contract and that all contestents sign contacts before there's any chance of them going on telly? Otherwise he's not actually done anything illegal per se...

Linus Dunce

23:16 / 22.11.03

Yes, but, in both cases he's arguably signed contracts with the intention to swindle money. How is this different from me, say, signing an employment contract with a company to work as an administrator or shop floor worker and then filtering off money/goods into my own account/garage?

w1rebaby

00:33 / 23.11.03

You are clearly some sort of Communist, with your highly suspicious single-letter surname. The courts are there to determine a man's moral character. Clearly a former Major of Her Majesty's Armed Forces is someone respectable, and therefore not to be sent to jail merely for having fallen on hard times. A builder or, god forbid, a dole scrounger who committed a similar offence would be of dubious character and thus deserve a good long spell in jail. It really is quite simple.

The purpose of the law is to provide pecuniary support to the many children of good families unable to find employment in some more practical field such as banking. This may be a worthy service, but a good judge should most certainly not let it affect his decisions.

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