> As they've likely personally profited to the tune of over £250,000 after their charitable donations that doesn't seem entirely unreasonable.
I assume they will have had their assets seized as proceeds of crime, so it's not as though they are trading off jail time for profit.
> The point here is that while they're nice, some of the people who they seem engaged with in the wider venture might not be. They're not in this on their own, they're also enabling others.
I wouldn't view it as enabling. If this couple aren't supplying the dealers, someone else will be, and that other person is almost guaranteed to be a nastier individual.
As I say, in a sense this couple were diverting funds away from real, nasty criminal enterprises towards their apparently harmless selves, and the charitable projects they supported.
If you're claiming charitable donations out of what they made means they should get leniency then trading profit for jail time is exactly what's happening.
Donations made from what they make = less profit directly to them. If that then leads to a shorter sentence (or as you're saying no sentence) then how is that not trading off jail time for profit?
The only thing you can say in their favour is that it seems unlikely that they were thinking that cynically when they did it, that the donations were probably genuine rather than an attempt to play the system, but it still sets a very dangerous precedent.
Besides, what about all the money they've already spent which can't be recovered? There really is no argument that they didn't profited from the crime.
I assume they will have had their assets seized as proceeds of crime, so it's not as though they are trading off jail time for profit.
> The point here is that while they're nice, some of the people who they seem engaged with in the wider venture might not be. They're not in this on their own, they're also enabling others.
I wouldn't view it as enabling. If this couple aren't supplying the dealers, someone else will be, and that other person is almost guaranteed to be a nastier individual.
As I say, in a sense this couple were diverting funds away from real, nasty criminal enterprises towards their apparently harmless selves, and the charitable projects they supported.