Mobile phone mugger Eugene Brown was jailed for two and a half years this week for his part in a robbery in Trowbridge.

This is the sort of sentence that is now being issued to crack down on the rising tide of crime to do with mobile phones.

That is all very well, and these people have been warned, but is it right or useful to single out one group of criminals in this way?

This was a serious crime but Brown was a first-time offender judged on what he chose to steal.

Career burglars have been jailed for less time come to think of it, so have rapists and killers.