Madam, - Vincent Browne's column headed "The great 'crime crisis' hype" makes a valid and worrying point about the small number of Companies Acts offences recorded in recent statistics compared with the number of "common crime" offences.
But his justification for assuming that Companies Act offences are on a large scale is even more worrying. "Come on, we all know it's going on all over the State, people making money from insider trading, fraudulent trading, falsifying accounts".
Do we all know? If so, how?
And do we all know enough to believe the estimate he prompts us to accept: 5,000 such cases in 2002?
I think your readers and the business community are both entitled to a more responsible level of proof before such sweeping accusations are made. - Yours, etc.,
VINCENT O'DOHERTY,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.