Scumbag should have been jailed

Aug 9 2009 Sunday Sun

In this case, it would appear crime really does pay. Along with a wardrobe full of designer gear, police found two flat-screen plasma TVs, a new kitchen and an array of electrical goods at Reynolds’s council home.

There’s a chance he’ll lose some of his ill-gotten gains when he faces a confiscation hearing and he may yet be forced to compensate the Wilsons. But, for the time being, he appears to have got off scot-free. No wonder the Wilsons feel cheated by the judicial system.

Leeches like Reynolds are thriving in the current economic climate. The Government estimates 165,000 people across the UK use loan sharks, but say the figure could rise to 200,000 if the credit squeeze continues.

Interest rates of millions of per cent are not unheard of. So now is not the time to be dishing out lenient sentences – not when huge increases in illegal lending are predicted. It sends out all the wrong signals.

At the risk of making a somewhat tenuous comparison, it’s worth noting that this week saw the release of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.

Having evaded justice for more than 30 years before giving himself up in 2001, you might not have much sympathy for him.

But whatever you think of Biggs, he’s a terminally ill 79-year-old who has posed no risk to the public for some considerable time.

The same can’t be said from Reynolds . . . I know which one I’d prefer to see behind bars.