THERE has been significant local comment about the 'lenient' sentence issued yesterday to 22 year-old Edvinas Pupkis who killed a local taxi driver when he crashed into his taxi while driving a stolen car.

Pupkis then fled the scene and it was only by a stroke of luck that he was captured while committing another crime just a few hours later.

Yesterday at Basildon Crown Court Judge Ian Graham sentenced Pupkis, who required an interpreter when he was in court, to just two and half years behind bars – and he is likely to be released well before the end of his allotted time on parole.

There has been widespread condemnation of the sentence which has been described a joke, an embarrassment to justice and an outrageous disgrace.

It is not the first time Judge Graham has courted controversy with his sentencing. Several years ago a national petition was launched to overturn the eight month suspended prison sentence Judge Graham gave to a 66-year-old peadophile who assaulted a number of children ranging from six months to 15 years old. The petition was rejected by the government.

Judge Graham has dished out longer sentences to Thurrock residents though. Most recently, earlier this month he put notorious Grays man Rocky Price behind bars for four and a half years for striking a girl with a hammer – though he too is likely to be free after serving half his sentence.