LETTER: '˜Are some magistrates fans of Jackanory?'

Can anyone reading this say they have seen anyone doing their community service? It appears they must be doing it in secret.

But when you see or read of a young driver who hasn’t felt the need to pay for lessons, who hasn’t been through the stress and apprehension of taking a driving test to prove they are able to control a car safely.

They are caught speeding along a road on the wrong side of the road, pulling off manoeuvres that make the cheeks of your backside clench waiting for the accident to happen, while putting everyone, especially the young and old, in danger.

Then they are put before the courts only for the magistrates to swallow the absolute garbage that come out of the offender’s mouth, like: “I was under fed by my mother 20 years ago, and it was that what made me drive like an idiot.”

In my view you would have to be an idiot yourself if you swallowed this hook, line and sinker.

Some of the stories the offenders make up wouldn’t fool a small child. Are some magistrates fans of Jackanory?

If you go to court in the public gallery you would have to stop yourself laughing at the stories you hear.

At the moment we have three people who live in a posh house in a posh area who don’t have to live in your area, who don’t have to put up with the ASB happening on every street corner, they live in a dream world.

Well we, especially myself, wonder why we put up with this outdated mode of delivering so-called justice to people who know what they have done, and then laugh at the system at the ridiculously small sentence they receive. Why don’t we do away with these magistrates who get expenses and a nice free dinner, and go to a single well-paid and experienced solicitor who rules on the case. There is a qualified solicitor who sits in front of the three on the Bench, the solicitor is there to advise what they can legally do, so why don’t we cut out the expenses and have a qualified, experienced professional

listening to the excuses and doling out the justice we the public want and expect?

Put the criminals in gaol (yes that’s the way we Brits spell it) because while they are away on holiday, (don’t get me started on what they get while in prison) it means less victims of crime.

If idiots flout the law they should expect summary justice equivalent to the crime they have committed. My plea is that we get rid of this outmoded system of the three magistrates, and move forward with the times evolving into a system that would see criminals get the justice they deserve. Criminals who are given sentences by a hardened professional not frightened to give custodial sentences for crimesagainst the hard working people, people who have worked for their luxuries, only to see them taken by criminals, some of whom think they have a right to steal from people to pump drugs into their arms.

Karen Gibb

By email