You could be right on the scale of offence for fraud. Although 10% of prisoners are veterans and we could surely do better than that (especially as another 10% are on the streets). At a cost of over £35k per year in prison, we need to do something different for these fellers.
The other problem is, is that it doesn’t seem to work! Prison population has quadrupled since 1990 and yet everyone says they feel less safe now than they did then. 9000 are foreign nationals, from 162 countries, so the total rise is nothing to do immigration, in case anyone was wondering.
It needs a radical rethink of which, sadly, our current generation of career politicians seem increasing incapable.