Cheater Chaytor Free to Go

Quietly on the BBC news, and buried deep in the Politics section of the BBC website, comes the news that thieving ex-MP David Chaytor has been released from his open prison. He was imprisoned for 18 months in January. He served just twenty weeks. That's less than one-third of his sentence.

I wrote at the time that:

... David Chaytor has been found guilty and sentenced to 18 months. So that's 9 months, less time spent on remand, less a bit because he is a decent chap of previously good character (heh, obviously not) and he pleaded guilty, so that will be about 10 minutes, then. In, no doubt, an 'open' prison. Hardly the twenty years banged up with Big Tony and the pot of Vaseline that we would have hoped for, but pleasing, nonetheless.

Folks, when I said 10 minutes, I was joking.

Remember that Chaytor

• Deliberately and with premeditation defrauded the taxpayer of £20,000
• Tried to argue that he and his kind were above the laws of ordinary people
• Appealed his sentence on the grounds of his 'previous good character'
• Made me choke on my coffee at the chutzpah of the above.

I thought 18 months was about right.

Four-and-a-half months is a complete joke.

Seriously, folks, this can't continue.