Friday 17 October 2008

NAPO calls for ASBOs for reckless bankers


Bankers who helped spark the credit crunch should be given anti-social behaviour orders to stop them being "reckless" in the future, a trade union leader has said.

Speculators who acted "irresponsibly" could be banned from working just like teenage yobs are banned from loitering, it was suggested.

Harry Fletcher, deputy general secretary of Napo, the probation officers union, said guilty bankers could also be given "acceptable behaviour contracts" like errant children to make them promise not to do the same in the future.

And he said the Government could look to extract financial penalties from people whose "negligence" had in part forced a taxpayer bail-out of banks.

He said: "The Probation Service deals with over 240,000 offenders every year who have behaved recklessly and caused damage and harm to innocent victims.

"The behaviour of dealers and traders is exactly the same: some of them have caused alarm and distress and have behaved in a reckless way."

"The Government must therefore investigate whether there has been any wrongdoing under current laws and if not should consider as a matter of urgency new laws."

He said innocent people had lost their homes and jobs as a result of the crunch and bankers should not be given "impunity".

He called for financial regulators, the Financial Services Authority, or the Home Office to launch an urgent inquiry into what new measures were needed.

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