LOLITA Reid, now languishing in jail for an especially nasty series of frauds, has only herself to blame for her predicament.

Entrusted with the care of a 91-year-old dementia sufferer, Reid raided the woman’s pension and savings and took £77,000.

She has now been jailed for a total of two years. Reid wept as she was sentenced, but she should count herself very fortunate indeed that she lives in a country whose judicial system takes a generally lenient approach to such offences. She will serve a year at most.

Society at large should also count itself fortunate in that Reid was jailed at all. Too often when such cases come to court in Swindon, the offender strolls free, usually with a grin on their face.

One gets the feeling that Reid may have been expecting such an outcome, but instead she has met a punishment which goes at least some way towards reflecting the gravity of what she did and deterring others from committing similar offences.

Reid has undoubtedly experienced great tragedy and difficulty in her life; the court heard that her brother and the father of her child were murdered in her native South Africa. She developed gambling and alcohol habits.

However, as her own lawyer acknowledged during the hearing, none of these factors excuse her behaviour.

Each of the crimes she committed was a volitional one; Reid, irrespective of her personal circumstances, was entirely aware of what she was doing and entirely aware that what she was doing was very, very wrong.

To suggest her background somehow excused her behaviour would be an insult to the majority of trauma sufferers who manage to go through life without demonstrating all the morality of beasts of prey seeking easy pickings.