More crime/time problems

Lots of people say, “If you do the crime, do the time.”

I say it, too. I think it even applies to CEOs as well as street punks.

Tom Coughlin, the former No. 2 executive at Wal-Mart, pleaded guilty two years ago to fraud and tax evasion. He’d been stealing gift cards and also using company funds to cover the theft of other items.

Wal-Mart’s loss from his not-so-little scheme was estimated at $500,000.

So how many years did Coughlin catch? Well, none.

A federal judge initially sentenced him to 27 months of home detention, five years of probation, a $50,000 fine and restitution of $400,000.

Prosecutors appealed the sentence as too lenient, such as the part about no prison time. Coughlin could have gotten as many as 28 years inside.

So the same judge looked at the case again, and agreed he’d taken it too easy on the exec.

This time, he added 1,500 hours of community service … but no prison time.

The judge cited Coughlin’s clean record, history of community service and medical problems.

OK, so maybe that means he spends only a few years behind bars. Not “no years.”

The bottom line is that he stole a half-million and will never see the inside of a cell.

Not fair, especially because lots of punks get hard time (and deserve it) for small-dollar crimes.

After his second wrist-slap, Coughlin said, “Judge, I just want to thank you for your fairness.”

He was probably thinking, “Holy cow! I can’t believe this clown bought my sob story!”