Two men convicted of cutting down the iconic Sycamore Gap tree could face 10 years or more in jail! Good!

@smileylovesgaming Criminal damage of more than £5000 can lead to more than ten years in jail, according to UK law.

The tree has been valued at more than £600,000, not to mention the damage done to Hadrian's Wall.

Plus it is DEFINITELY in the public interest to prosecute as millions were furious, and not just in the UK.

@iamthe99 they can plant a new tree

@smileylovesgaming They can. But these men are going to jail for a long time.

@smileylovesgaming Do you mean, why waste government (actually tax-payers' as governments do not have money) on dealing with criminals?

@smileylovesgaming It is beginning to sprout anew from the stump, which is a good sign!

@iamthe99 Those penalties are maxima not mandatory, but in the public interest wider than the reaction to the particular incident. In the public interest to show that criminal damage must not and will not be tolerated.

@ArishMell I think jailing them for 10 years or more could be extremely popular.

@iamthe99 It could, but perhaps better would be a driving-ban for at least as long, with the confiscation and destruction of the car and chain-saw; and massive fines and costs - even if they have to spread the payment over many instalments.

If they genuinely cannot afford it then for vandalism, a community-service order of equivalent value might be appropriate but I don't know if the law presently allows it. For the service I have in mind is not running elderly people to hospital or tending their gardens, admirable though those are. Instead, to comprise clearing and (as far as possible repairing) the results of other anti-social acts including physical breaking of property, graffitti, fouling of public rights-of-way by dogs and horses, litter and fly-tipping.

Anyway, irrespective of any penalty in law, these two useless, anti-social cowards have already shown themselves publicly they cannot be trusted, and that may affect them for years to come. That is entirely their own fault. They chose to be useless, to be anti-social, to be cowards.