Shadow Home Secretary de-frauds the tax payer again - and gets away with it again!!

Both the theft and fraud acts are quite specific and neither have a clause saying that when you are caught de-frauding people, you can just say 'sorry, I will pay now'. However, if you are an MP in the UK, spending the tax payers money (of which I am a reluctant payer), then when you are caught committing this serious criminal offence, you can just say sorry, pay the money back and no more is said.

In my line of work all employees submit their own expense claims. Not all are checked but a certain percentage are. If you are caught de-frauding then you are dealt with as a criminal. If you are caught making a mistake, like Jacqui Smith, Shadow Home Secretary, then you still have an administrative sanction taken against you - sort of, don't be so stupid next time but we will put it on your record so when you do it again you can really be punished.

So, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, recently caught out fiddling £1000s in claims for a second home owned by her sister has done it again. This time she claimed for a TV package, include pay per view porn. Obviously she is not allowed to do this and when she was caught she immediately said sorry and paid the money back. Imagine how empty the courts would be if every thief could just say sorry when they were caught and pay back what they have stolen?

This, as usual stinks of one rule for the unter-mensch and another for our politicians.