Real criminals get away with it

I would like to correct Trevor Howard's comment regarding Taser usage (September 25). He writes: "It could happen here". I say, it will happen here.

One day, you'll be driving along an open road, free of any traffic, admiring the view, listening to Radio 2 and slightly over the speed limit when, BANG, the latest Gatso Taser device will zap you with a million volts and a fine.

Think I'm joking? If 20 years ago someone had told you that you could receive six points on your licence for sitting at home watching telly while another member of your family drove your car slightly over the limit, but you couldn't remember who or when, you would have laughed at them.

How come I can be punished for not remembering who was driving my car a few weeks back, but if a bunch of yob passengers refuse to name the driver of a car involved in an high speed chase, ignoring traffic lights, driving the wrong way along busy streets (we've all seen Police Camera Action), they all go unpunished.

I urge you to read the In The Courts articles in this newspaper, which report some of the punishment dished out by our magistrates, it will shock you. Among them – £50 for breaching an Asbo, £35 for criminal damage, £40 for damaging a bus, £50 for loitering, conditional discharges for assault or resisting a constable in the execution of his duty. It's enough to make me turn to drugs (that's only £225 for possession of Class A and Class C).

Community service and no fine for benefit fraud, theft, carrying an imitation gun, the list goes on, but do anything wrong in your car and you are up the bank for an overdraft. In fact you don't have to be in the car – £60 for parking it on a line of yellow paint.

I'm not saying don't fine me for doing a few miles over the limit or for parking for a few minutes where I shouldn't. What I am saying is make it fair and proportionate. If a £60 fine and three points on my licence for going six miles over the limit is acceptable, then the criminal who planned his theft, the yobs who roam the streets damaging property or the fraudster out to steal our cash should be given much stiffer sentences.

The people who can make a difference to crime in this country, our magistrates and Members of Parliament, either do not have a clue or don't give a dam.

Instead of electing or selecting these people, we would be better off plucking ordinary men and women from randomly selected streets. They would soon have the country in order.

Roy Jones, St Giles Crescent, Wolverhampton.