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I’m not exaggerating.

Over here, if you commit a crime that isn’t murder you’ll be arrested but they won’t lock you up.
(If you do something marginally less serious, but you’re likely to skedaddle, they just might lock you up as well. Might…)

They’ll take down your details, verify your address and send you off home.

No bail – just go homer and wait.

Then – at some stage, – you’ll get a summons to court, you get tried and you’ll probably get probation.

Especially likely if you’re socio-economically fairly well up the ladder. You might even be able to pay a chunk of folding stuff to a worthy cause and even avoid conviction.

So it was with great surprise that I heard about a TV journalist who was caught with his snout firmly in the trough, willingly accepting contributions from all and sundry to appear on the box and got 2 years and a bit.

Behind bars.

I’m not for a situation where you have 20% of the populace with a criminal conviction (UK) or 10% of black men in their 20s and 30s in jail, but if you catch a bunch of people trying to install skimming devices on ATMs, I really don’t think a slap on the wrist is the answer.

Of course, that’s just my opinion.

I could be wrong.