OUR judges may have their hands tied regarding the length of sentences they are able to hand out but sometimes the law fills me with despair.

Kenneth Yorke was sentenced to three years in prison for burglary at the Fox & Field clothing shop in Barnard Castle (Echo, Nov 13).

He is immediately given a 25 per cent reduction for having pleaded guilty. Perhaps the evidence gave him no choice but to plead that way!

However, his two accomplices are still at large. Therefore should his sentence not have been of an indefinite length until they had been traced – with his assistance?

If he felt he would be betraying his “friends” by doing this perhaps as a result of the sentence they might turn themselves in and get 25 per cent off their sentence.

The owner of the shop, in my opinion, did not get proper justice.

Name and address supplied