that's borgoise privelidge, steal a $2000 bike and you're on prison, commit a $250,000 fraud and you walk. it was a fucking federal offence and he got what is basically federal bail.  how it works is that the "higher" authority is basically a get out of jail free department, and they effectively bail cronies out of the normal system which would otherwise totally fuck them.  lawyers i've spoken to say that i've got no understanding of how the system works, frankly i think they're institutionalised and have lost sight of the actual outcome. looking at the outcome it's a tiered system where cunts get less time for 200k fraud than a 2k bike theft.  the first offenders provision should be abolished where the first offence is longitudinal. if you've committed 8 frauds in a row and it's being prosecuted as one crime, then it's a farce for a judge to consider that a first offence or to say the person has a good character. they've got an established pattern of premeditated criminal offending.
Australia