To think I should steal £53K then just cry to get away with it

[moogstera1]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20309090
Unbelievable. So she cried at an earlier hearing ( I'm sure I would if I'd been caught nicking 50 odd grand) and so this means she's in a fragile state and won't go to prison.
aibu there's different rules going on.
And yes, I have got a bee in my bonnet about the MP stealing saga.

yes because that is enough to be deemed unfit to stand trial...mental illness is really just 'crying' a bit

what she did was very wrong - but she has been found MEDICALLY unfit to stand trial

I don't know how the MPs who were sent to prison must feel about this.

but she was perfectly capable of holding down a very full on job, until she got caught. Then suddenly she's a gibbering wreck who can't even attend court

well maybe you are medically qualified enough to diagnose her fit Moog - and how do you know she was capable in her job - she may well have been a 'gibbering wreck' then

nice views on mental health issues though

Not only that, but while she was apparently medically unfit to stand trial, oir to work as an MP, she was doing (paid) consultancy work.

According to Private Eye anyway. [goes off to check link]

This mental illness of hers has come on far too conveniently.

OK,, treat her speediily for it - and then make her stand trial.

I predict she'll now make a miraculous recovery, a la Ernest Saunders, the only person ever to have made a full recovery from Alzheimer's.

Don't have time to trawl google, but have easily founds multiple references to when she was supposedly unable to do her job she was one of the MPs caught in that sting last year offering to influence government for cash.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/how-scandal-dogged-margaret-morans-career-8312729.html

Just one ref above.

I have no doubt she is under huge amounts of stress now and that she is suffering because of that. I would be stressed too if my actions were similar and i had been caught out.

I do not say this lightly because I do suffer with severe depression and anxiety but I think she's having them on.

All too convenient, she was doing paid work.

Load of bullshit IMO.

Is she claiming she was ill at the time? I ask because during my Woking career I had a head like a sieve when it came to th has like mileage forms etc. To my knowledge though this never netted me huge amounts of money....more like meant I was working at a loss.

have to say, like Buppy that I do not raise doubt on MH issues lightly at all. Have very close family members who have suffered- and continue to suffer dreadfully from depression- and from associated stigma. I have seen their hurt and pain when that is misunderstood.

I just think it is a little too opportunistic.

It really pisses me off when people get away with stuff because of MH issues, it gives the real sufferers a bad name.

She's bound to be seriously under stress and its not hard at all to be diagnosed as depressed.

I don't like pointing the finger of blame, especially on someone with supposed mental health issues, but this doesnt sit right with me.

I think its bullshit. And i would never usually not believe someone claiming mh issues.

But honestly this is all bollocks, imo. She is a thief and not above faking an illness to get away with it.
Disgusting.

The news is full of these type of cases.....
Here are a few local to me, where the difference in amounts embezzled are quite marked, yet some who stole less were given a custodial sentence.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-16600410
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-14854998
news.stv.tv/tayside/113693-caravan-park-manager-embezzled-more-than-60000-in-two-year-scam/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-14274596

I personally know one of these people - quite well. I used to work with them. The only time I saw them become anxious was when their crime was in the process of being discovered. I think it is very much in the hands of the individual judge as to whether a more severe sentence is given.....

Morans medical mental condition is probably like the miraculously self curing Alzheimers that Ernest Saunders had.

Rhinestone, just read your comment, you beat me to it!

In order to be deemed unfit to stand trial, as she was, she has to be assessed by two psychiatrists who will provide a report to the Judge. He will then decide whether she is
a) able to understand the nature of the allegations against her
b) able to challenge a juror
c) able to provide instructions to her solicitor

If not then he will find that she is unfit to plea/stand trial.

Whether her mental episode would seem to be 'convenient timing' to some, she has been independently assessed by two psychiatrists and based on their findings a judge has rule she is not fit. She has still been found to have committed the act alleged and will still be sentenced, albeit to either an absolute discharge (which is very unlikely), a supervision order, or a hospital order.

Ahhhh Rhinestone there's a blast from the past. The man is a walking wonder of medicine. Maybe he's repaying his debt to society by being a human lab rat somewhere underground.

I'd be suffering from severe depression/anxiety if i'd been caught with my fingers in the till. A convenient insult to all those struggling with their MH issues who don't realise their sense of entitlement by stealing.

Dreaming you have a rather touching faith in psychiatrists I fear.

She's depressed because she got caught.

I have an MH diagnosis and if I committed fraud and was caught I suppose I might well have a nervous breakdown. That would not mean that I was not a lying piece of sh** who deserved to go to prison.

I don't think the diagnosis should affect punishment. The money should be recovered for a start.

Exactly Ivana. Most people with MH don't use it as an excuse for anything. Let alone serious crime.

She's giving us all an even worse name than we already have. As 'loonies' and 'shirkers' we're already scum to many.

Not really Old Mumsy, it's just in 13 years of having worked in criminal law, I have been involved in many cases where the client has mental health difficulties and psychiatrists are not instructed to consider to fitness to plead in all cases. In fact I've only done it probably a dozen times despite a large percentage of my clients having mental health issues of one sort or another.

Only once have I been involved in a case where the person was deemed to be unfit to stand trial. It isn't a case of psychiatrists quickly jumping to the conclusion that someone isn't fit to stand trial simply because of depression or anxiety, for example.

Yes, am really rather surprised he's not a trustee of the Alzheimer's Society or something,Mehta with his unique recovery.

[innocent face]

Don't know what the Mehta was!!

What Dreaming said. It's not easy to be found unfit to stand trial. She must have some serious problems.