Like so many of you, I was scandalised to read about how Simon Price, the former Chief Executive of Birmingham Dogs Home (BDH), colluded with his ex-partner Alayna to embezzled almost £1 million.
This not only defrauded a worthy local charity, but everybody who donated to it in good faith. His actions may have caused lasting damage to the BDH brand and deter potential donors from giving for years to come.
Yet if the crime was shocking, so was the punishment. Last month, despite being convicted on ten counts of fraud, Mr Price was sentenced to only five years in prison. Alayne, who admitted to five counts, received only a two-year suspended sentence.
Quite simply, that isn’t enough. That’s why I have written to the Attorney General, urging him to appeal the sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentences Scheme. This allows the Government to take action when a sentence doesn’t properly reflect public concern and anger about a particular case.
Of course, an independent judiciary is a cornerstone of our judicial process. But this is just an appeal, not an overruling, and I hope that in time ministers will help set a new and more appropriate standard of sentencing for fraud cases.
But this is just a symptom of a much broader issue. As a former financial journalist I have been working hard in Parliament to crack down on fraud, and I know that the courts regularly struggle to hand down appropriate sentences to scam artists.
Too often the focus is purely on the money involved, which can sometimes be a relatively small sum. But such tunnel vision fails to capture the real human and social costs of fraud. Falling victim to a scam can often lead to mental and even physical health problems, especially amongst older people.
In other news, I have also had the very interesting job this week of chairing an Opposed Bill Committee. This is an unusual part of life at Westminster where a small group of MPs meet in a quasi-judicial capacity to consider, amend, and pass specialist legislation relating to certain bodies in the UK.
This one relates to the so-called Middle Level Navigations. Their canals keep a large swathe of eastern England from flooding and haven’t had a new law since the 19th Century!
Whilst it doesn’t relate directly to our community in Solihull, I have found chairing the committee an eye-opening insight into the huge range of issues which are shaped here at Westminster.
Originally published in the Solihull News, 19/01/17.