Oh, Carol!

A Somali benefits cheat has been spared jail because the judge sentencing him said the cost of locking him up for a year would be the same as the amount he swindled.

What judge could possibly make such a rul…

Oh. Of course. Well, it would have to be, really, wouldn’t it?

'£39,000 is what it costs to keep one man in prison for a year. Do I wish to burden the state further with another £38,000 to £40,000, much as I think it is deserved?' she said.

Instead the judge handed Mustafa a 24-week suspended sentence, ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and pay £250 costs.

*sigh*

Oh, well, I suppose he’ll have to pay back the £39,00?

Oh:

The court heard he had paid back £200 in income support and £520 in council tax benefit.

Well, it’s a start, I suppose…

Judge Hagen asked Paul Cook, defending: 'If he was sending £800 to £1,000 to Somalia, why is he not paying that to the Department for Work and Pensions?'

Mr Cook said his client had only been able to do that because he was living off his fraudulent benefits, and sending his earnings out of the UK.

Here comes the ‘mitigation’…

Mr Cook described Mustafa’s early life in Somalia as 'hell', and said he had seen his mother and father killed when he was aged 15, and seen his brothers and sisters killed a year later.

So? That seems to be the standard Somali sob story. Is there anyone over here who didn’t witness wholesale slaughter of their relatives?

Oh, we’re not finished

*readies tiny violin*

The court heard that in 2005 Mustafa married a girl from his village, who gave birth to twins who both died - one of them three days before the hearing.

This dude’s bad news! Does he have a three legged dog called 'Lucky' too?

Mustafa now has two children and one on the way with another woman, who came to the UK in 2007, does not speak English and is 'utterly dependant' on him, Mr Cook said.

Errr, no. Actually, she’s ‘utterly dependent’ on the State. He’s not taking care of her, we are!

Judge Hagen asked: “Why is it that a man facing serious criminal charges embarks on a third child? It seems seriously irresponsible.”

Mr Cook said: 'He only intended one child.' The judge replied: 'He’s a grown man. He can take his own preventative measures.'

Would that Mr & Mrs Hagen had taken some, too…

Not that Gullible Carol is the only soft-hearted and even softer-headed judge on the bench:

Zadran, 18, was found guilty of violent disorder and arson during the London riots last year.

But Judge Seed let him off with a fine after saying he had been used to witnessing violence every day and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

/facepalm

And once again, that inverted 2012 meaning of the term ‘vulnerable’:

Judge Seed described his case as ‘exceptional’. He said: ‘No other defendant will have appeared in front of the courts in such circumstances, that is why you are not being sentenced to two to three years in prison,’ he said.

Inner London Crown Court heard that Zadran – who works at a mobile phone kiosk in Lewisham – is ‘extremely vulnerable’ and prone to exploitation as a result of his childhood.

He was also said to suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, stress and anxiety.

Unlike the people who watched their homes and businesses burn to the ground in the orgy of self-indulgent looting and destruction by people who’ve never been told the world owes them nothing, I suppose?