I recently watched a television programme about community service. I have been incensed in the past at the paltry sentences handed out to benefit cheats who get away with a few hours of community service. So I found out what sort of “punishment” community service is. Usually it is done by women offenders by helping out in charity shops, which can hardly be described as much of a punishment. They do not even have to wear the “community payback” tabards which male offenders are made to wear. Surely this cushy “punishment” is sex discrimination. Why don’t they have to do hard work and wear the tabards?

No wonder so many take the chance of being caught.

Wendy Taylor
Manor Road, Lancing