Speedy Skelton faces Christmas porridge

he will bore all of his new mates in there..

 

3 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice?

 

It was stupid of him and shows a bad attitude..... but I mean, five months?

Maybe I was a bit lenient with £1000, make it £5000 and a thousand hours of community service or something, or six months hard labour - it might whip his lazy arse into shape

We are talking about very small amounts of money in the grand scheme of things - it's a waste of resources.

Plenty of people have served less for death by dangerous driving or other serious offences [trying not to get into a rant here].

It just shows, crimes against people are clearly less severe than crimes against money or the establishment.

 

I'll say it again, he has not been put away for the driving offences but for perverting the course of justice.

 

Naz almost kills someone behind the wheel of a car and gets 9 weeks.

Skelton is a bit of an idiot and gets 5 months.

Where is OJ's barrister when you need him????

 

I'm well aware of that.

But surely the two shouldn't be mutually exclusive, he tried getting out of paying some speeding tickets for God's sake.

It's not like he lied at a murder trial or anything - if that's the case by all means lock him up for five years.

Surely a fine and some community service would be adequate in this case as I've already said. I'm sure George Osborne would be chuffed to know that for the sake of a few hundred quid he's had to spend thousands on a trial and keeping him inside for the jail term.

 

In that last paragraph you've just outlined exactly why he has got five months rather than anything lesser; he took it to trail. Taking perverting the course of justice to trail could see you getting up to seven years (though, obviously, he wouldn't have got that for this). It was his choice to cost the tax payer money in terms of legal aid, prosecution costs and court time and therefore he is punished for it. I see your point that is somewhat perverse to punish someone for costing us money by paying out more money to incarcerate but the judge clearly thought he needed to be a taught a lesson and that a monetary fine and unpaid work (which would have needed to be far less than you said) would not do that.

The principle is that he has lied to the court. He should rightly be punished for it in a way that stops him thinking he can get away with it and send out a message to others that they should not either. Our politics differ quite markedly, I believe - I'm far to the left and my research involves me working extensively with reforming the CJS to protect defendants and reduce prison tarrifs in favour of community sentances. However, I understand that this is a completly fair sentance under the current regime - the notion that lying to the police SIX times is alright sometimes (you know, only in relation to speeding offences where a big metal box is flung around the place and becomes a weapon).

Personally, I think two months inside is lucky. He was stupid taking it to trail, he could have got off a lot lighter.

 

must have a few quid if he's driving around in a porsche

 

You do make valid points.

My main gripe is that when you compare the offences Skelton committed to, say Gazza, driving around four times over the drink drive limit.... five months inside vs a suspended sentence (basically a slap on the wrist) seems incredibly harsh.

I'd have slung Gazza inside for a year and banned him from driving for five years (my preference would be life but I'm not sure that matters in Gazza's case) - the penalties for drink driving need to be much stiffer. As you rightly point out, a speeding car is a weapon..... a car with a drunk driver may as well be an automatic machine gun.

Petty criminals shouldn't go to prison. Hit them in the pocket by fining them heavily and making them graft without pay - that teaches a lesson more than housing them, three square meals a day and snooker on break times.

I'm all for turning prisons into complete and utter shitholes like in the USA or South Africa, making it a proper deterrent :hey

 

Thing is BB, you don't attach as much importance to holding the law/ judicial system in contempt as the law does. Its a pretty big deal.

 

Execute him then :deal

 

Happy New Year, Matt!

 

I just snotted on my keyboard!!

 

:yep

For ''war'' crimes

 

Make him watch the Sprott trilogy on an endless loop?