I was handed a very unusual piece of news by a visitor the other day to the iNews Cayman office. It was an article written by journalist Paul Keogh appearing in the free UK newspaper called METRO – described as “the newspaper you can read in 20 minutes.”

The story concerned a policewoman, Michele Selby, who said she was too busy delivering mail to another police station so instead of arresting a burglar trying to break into a Chinese restaurant in Kirintilloch, nr. Glasgow, Scotland, she let him go but confiscated his tools! She even told the suspect he would have been arrested and would probably have gone to jail if she could have been bothered.

Unfortunately for PC Selby her colleague told on her to their bosses and she ended up in court charged and convicted with of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

PC Shelby was given a custodial sentence but the report doesn’t say how long she would spend in jail.

She told Glasgow sheriff court: “I made a mistake, it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t wilful, it wasn’t evil. I didn’t start my shift and say I’m going to defeat the ends of justice today.”

And some people think we have a problem with our police force? I hope she doesn’t apply for a job here. Commissioner, please note the name – Michele Shelby!