WE consider Britain to be a civilised society, yet decent people are not safe in their own homes.

Old people are regularly conned out of their savings by bogus officials and rogue builders, who habitually get away with it.

You see such cases, the fortunate few, highlighted on TV, but the vast majority of old people who suffer such an experience suffer it in silence, and it could, and in many cases probably does, mean the death of them.

Muggers, rapists and other assorted psychopaths, when brought before the courts, are treated with a degree of leniency and practical sympathy that most genuinely ill or troubled people can only dream of.

In place of this nonsense what we need are real police and real punishments.

Then, the offenders will laughing on the other side of their faces.

Tony Kelly, Crook.