I FEEL I must comment on the sentence given to the Portuguese lorry driver (Hereford Times, April 30).
He was banned from driving in the UK for seven years and given a four-year jail sentence. I take issue with the jail sentence.
Our prisons are full to bursting point, and keeping a prisoner is very expensive in taxpayers’ money. Since the offence was due to a catastrophic failure of memory, there was no criminal intent.
Surely the judge’s priority should be to protect the public from dangerous people, as well as to deter other offenders. I believe we should leave punishment to God, and not presume to do it for him.
In this case, I would have banned him from driving lorries in UK for life, suspended the prison sentence and deported himhome to Portugal.
J E GEARY, Kingstone, Hereford
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