I’m not sure if anyone has ever avoided a jail sentence because of their spelling and grammar skills until today, but this has now happened thanks to Judge David Hale from Swansea, who decided to let drug dealers Luke Rance and Brandon Kerrison off the hook after being impressed with their text messages.

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19 year old Rance and 21 year old Kerrigan were arrested outside a library in the city in possession of cocaine and cannabis after the pair had apparently fallen in with some bad boys from Liverpool who were supplying their operation. However, during the trial, Hale heard that Rance was due to start a degree soon and was active in theatre projects, whereas it was revealed that Kerrison was studying at Llansamlet Construction College in the city.

In addition to this, Hale was impressed with the language that they had been using to communicate the details of their deals in their text messages. He was particularly amazed by the following message from Kerrison:

Mad flavours from 10 tonight – let me know for more details.

I mean in fairness when you’re getting in touch with a dealer it doesn’t normally sound like that does it? But I’m not sure if I would be so impressed by a relatively straightforward message like that that I wouldn’t send them to jail because of it.

Nevertheless, this was Hale’s decision as he seemed convinced of their higher standard of education and didn’t want to ruin their future prospects in life by handing them a 26 week sentence. I suppose I can see where he’s coming from, but it’s awfully classist/snooty because a jail sentence is gonna put an X on anyone for life, regardless of whether they’re heading out to do a degree or not.

Fact is these two losers dealt drugs which is against the law and should be punished accordingly with the law, not let off because they talk slightly better than other people. Hardly really sending the right message to people there is it? Probably gonna make those at the bottom of the social ladder feel even more stepped upon to be honest. Not cool.

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