I Have To Ask 'Does The Punishment Fit The Crime?'

or are courts getting too soft? Christopher Hemsley tucked into a crayfish he'd caught during a trip to the Lake District, he thought he was doing his bit for the environment, after all, the lobster-like American signal crayfish pose such a threat to native wildlife that they are high on the Environment Agency's list of most wanted foreign species, but he made a serious mistake instead of eating the American crayfish he was eating the British crayfish pictured above,

he should of been eating this one, the American crayfish, the 41-year-old father-of-three was spotted trapping the white-clawed crayfish in the River Kent at Staveley, near Kendal, Cumbria - one of the last remaining strongholds of the native species, a passersby alerted the Environment Agency who called in the police, South Lakeland magistrates heard that Hemsley and another man had caught around 40 crayfish over a weekend, some were boiled and eaten while others were put in an icebox to take back to Leeds, the court heard, Hemsley admitted catching the creatures and accepted he was fishing without a licence, but he said he thought they were the nonnative signal crayfish, brought to the UK by fish farmers in the 1970s, the signal crayfish are bigger, stronger and faster breeding than the white-clawed variety, they pose such a threat to native wildlife that their consumption has been encouraged in the past, with the Environment Agency in 2006 describing American signal crayfish as 'very, very tasty in bisque', while the trapping of white clawed crayfish is outlawed across the country, the American variety can be fished in some parts - but not in Cumbria,

so this master criminal had his day in court, now ponder this, how much do you think his fine should be for mistakenly eating a couple of plates of scampi and chips?

£100 a little to low,

£250 hardly a slap on the wrist for such a heinous crime,

£500 now we are getting some where,

£1,000, the accused might still think he got away with it!

£2,000 now this is more like it!

but wait, in a blinding flash of fair play he was finned a staggering £4,000! in mitigation, John Batty said Hemsley was an 'active environmentalist' who had no idea he was catching an endangered species, imagine what the fine would be if Hemsley did not have John Batty to plead mitigation, I can not help thinking some courts in the UK are a bit to soft on harden criminals!