Punishment Fits The Crime
Penniless lorry driver is jailed for trying to sell Ritz in £250m scam
THE fraudster who tried to sell the Ritz for £250 million in a "outrageous and elaborate scam" despite the fact that he never owned it was jailed for five years.
Conman Anthony Lee, 49, promised his victims a deal on the hotel and casino in London's Piccadilly which was "too good to be true" but the building was owned by the billionaire Barclay brothers.
Sentencing him yesterday, judge Stephen Robbins: "This scam can be compared to those fraudsters who tried to sell the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace and London Bridge."
BBC News - 'Happy slapping' youths detained for grandfather death
Two teenage members of a "happy slapping" gang who fatally beat a retired care worker in front of his young granddaughter in south London have been detained.
Ekram Haque, 67, was attacked in August 2009 in Tooting as he left a mosque. He died from his injuries a week later.
Leon Elcock, 16, and Hamza Lyzai, 15, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in June at the Old Bailey.
Elcock was detained for four-and-a half years and Lyzai for three-and-a-half.
Five years for trying to separate some fools from their money, four years for killing a grandfather in front of his three year old granddaughter, a culmination of a series of gratuitous attacks aimed at Asians. (As the criminals are black this doesn't seem to be classified as a racial crime though).
As some great philosophers once said on the subject:
I hear the bells of freedom chiming
And inside my heart I feel I'm dying
Wise guys never compromise
Then they loose their rights and they act surprised
Jail really cuts ya down to size
Let the punishment fit the crime