A judge who spared a 23-year-old thief jail has been branded "appalling" and "naive" by a former Detective Chief Superintendent at the Met Police.
Will Pearson was handed a 12-month community order and a fine after brazenly stealing £350 from a pensioner in a remote village in Cumbria. The prison term that could have been handed to Pearson could have been 26 weeks.
Defending Pearson's crime, John Cooper told Workington magistrates’ court that the amount he had stolen from the pensioner is "the same amount Labour is taking with the Winter Fuel Payment scrap".
Cooper claimed: "£350 is a significant amount to some people. I’m not sure what the situation is for this gentleman. It’s exactly the same amount the Labour government has taken off pensioners in the winter fuel allowance."
Former Detective Kevin Hurley hit out at the 'appalling' verdict handed to Pearson by the judge
GB News / Getty
Reacting to the sentencing on GB News, former Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley scolded the "appalling" ruling made by the judge and highlighted the "naivety of the magistrates who sit on the bench".
Hurley fumed: "It's appalling. This man is clearly a drug addict, his own family apparently have said that. What concerns me here is the naivety of the magistrates who sit on the bench.
"This is someone who clearly will not stop being immoral, dishonest, betraying people's trust, and they let him off again with a little slap on the wrist to do some community service orders."
In criticism of the UK's justice system, Hurley made clear that judges have a "duty" to protect Britons from dangerous and brazen criminals such as Pearson.
Will Pearson told the judge that the amount of money he stole was 'the same amount Labour is taking from pensioners'
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Hurley explained: "I believe along the way, the understaffed probation service will kind of say we'll have to breach him because he hasn't turned up to paint the toilets, because he's stoned again.
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"There is a duty on magistrates and judges to protect us. This guy is obviously a menace to vulnerable people, committing dreadful thievery, there's no other way of describing it, on a vulnerable old person."
Calling for tougher sentencing on criminals, Hurley claimed that despite the growing issue with dwindling prison spaces, offenders should be imprisoned to "protect us all".
Hurley added: "When these people are locked up in prison, never mind rehabilitation or what's in their best interest, they can't steal from us.
"So there is definitely a case and people keep forgetting it, but the reason why we have prison is to protect us all."
Hurley told GB News that judges 'have a duty' to protect the British public from such criminals
GB News
Noting that the prison system has seen a lack of investment "for the last 20 years", Hurley called for an "urgent plan" by Labour to "create additional accommodation", rather than letting offenders out early.
Hurley concluded: "The great concern at the moment is there are now no prison places. So there is an urgent need for the Labour government, as opposed to tipping people out of prison, which we're seeing 50 per cent of people already released being re-arrested.
"Find an urgent way to create additional accommodation - whether that is taking over old army land, put barbed wire around it for lower risk people, and find a way whether with private security or the armed forces to provide a guarding service, until there can be proper investment in prisons and probation to protect us."
