Better than jail

I NeVeR thought I’d find myself saying this, but I agree with Nick Clegg: there are too many people in prison, and to hear Justice Secretary Chris Grayling preaching about ‘prison working’ and being ‘a good thing’ doesn’t cut it for me.

I’m biased, of course, writing from my prison cell, serving a three-year sentence, but we often read about overcrowded prisons and the fact that the UK has far more prisoners as a percentage of population than any other major country.

My ‘crime’ was to sign an accountant’s reference for an investment property a client was buying. I lied when I claimed I’d acted for two years when the engagement letter was signed just a few months earlier. I never intended any loss and didn’t make a penny from this heinous crime. But I’m 59 shortly, ruined and facing bankruptcy.

The process of putting and keeping me in jail will have cost the taxpayer a seven-figure sum, including the tax bill I can’t now pay on business profits kept by my former partners, legal aid, court costs, etc.

Why not let me work on a curfew, paying part of my income to the Crown, or doing community service?

I made a mistake and feel I should repay society, not be a burden.

Here in jail, I’ve met a guy whose crime was to lend money at 5 per cent interest to his friends/family and another who paid child maintenance to his kids, not his ex, and assorted failed businessmen.

Chris Grayling is no doubt proud of his record on crime because prisoners

like me don’t reoffend and financial crimes enable judges and prosecutors to make money out of confiscations. Putting thugs and hooligans away doesn’t help the numbers. NICK POMROY, HMP Springhill,

Aylesbury, Bucks.