Derisory sentences do not fit international crimes

Derisory sentences do not fit international crimes, as a trial judge must have realised this week when he sentenced three men each to 3 years and 4 months imprisonment for what has been described as “burglary tourism”, whilst commenting that the United Kingdom was a soft touch for such criminals. He added that the defendants had heaped misery on their victims.

The burglars struck the home of a celebrity chef and his wife when they were away. Three orange dots had been sprayed on the fence of the house to identify it as high value property. The gang, who had flown in from Chile days before the raid gained entry by smashing a patio door and the owners later found their property strewn all over the floor.

The defendants were arrested two days after the burglary while on their way to commit another. As if the crime were not audacious enough, one of the burglars was wearing a gold pendant stolen in the raid at the time of his arrest and a picture was found of two of them posing with the stolen jewellery.

Only last year The Times reported that thieves belonging to a Chilean network were ransacking houses across the home counties and shipping the goods home, and a large number of South Americans have been arrested in the past two years.

Today another burglary was reported in the national press involving up to £500,000 worth of property at the home of a premier league footballer while the footballer was away with his wife and family for Christmas, prompting further fears of burglary tourism as it was but a short distance away from the case mentioned above.

Professional crimes of this nature, even when committed by criminals resident in this country, call for condign punishment, but when carried out by those who are prepared to travel across the world to execute their carefully planned enterprise, they call for exemplary sentences.

It is only when professional criminals do not think it is worth the risk that they may cease to heap distress upon their unwitting victims. Sentences of just 3 years and 4 months, of which no more than half will be served in custody, are little more than a slap on the wrist for offences of this magnitude.

Time then that the government and the judiciary sat up and took notice, took measures to make the punishment fit the crime and better protected the citizens of this country.