Gang 'jailed for a total of 94 years'

This evening's 8pm news summary on BBC One mentioned the sentencing of a drug-smuggling gang. The newsreader said:

Patrick Walsh and his accomplices were jailed for a total of 94 years


However she did not say how many accomplices there were.

If Walsh had 20 accomplices, that figure of 94 years would seem on the low side; conversely, if he had only two, it would seem rather high.

So it's almost meaningless to be told the number of years without also being told the number of accomplices.

(According to the East London Advertiser, Walsh had five accomplices.)

Incidentally, I was amused to hear the gang referred to as "international drug smugglers". Unless told otherwise, I assume that drug smugglers smuggle drugs from one country to another, making them by default "international".

But that's just my interpretation.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn right. This annoys the hell out of me. And, by extension, the missus, as I shout abuse at the telly/paper.

M.H. Forsyth said...

There's a place just next to Euston Station that offers INTERNATIONAL TABLE DANCING, which rather implies a border checkpoint halfway across.

The Ridger, FCD said...

Maybe they were an international gang? Were some of them from abroad?

JD (The Engine Room) said...

Dogberry: perhaps it's the tables that are international. "I'd like my dance on the Kazakhstani table!"