Banks will keep on getting away with it

THE powerful American billionaire, Martha Stewart, was recently sentenced to five months’ imprisonment for lying to investigators about alleged insider trading in late 2001.

From crime to jail sentence took less that three years.

Compare this with our latest banking scandal. The National Irish Bank investigation took more than six years. Bank personnel lied to and obstructed government investigators for at least a year. The bank was found to have robbed from their customers and the State. If prosecutions are taken - and, judging from past experience, this is highly unlikely - it will be many more years before justice is seen to be done.