Prof Andrew Ashworth says prison should only be used for most serious violent, threatening or sexual crimes

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

A leading legal expert has proposed abolishing prison sentences for theft and other "pure property crimes".

Instead, Andrew Ashworth, Vinerian professor of English law at the University of Oxford, said courts should issue fines, compensation orders and community sentences for those convicted of theft, fraud or handling stolen goods. He added that this would mean 5,000 fewer men jailed each year (about 8% of the 2012 prison population) and 700 fewer women (21%).

Depriving offenders of their liberty is a disproportionate punishment for a crime that only deprives victims of their property, Ashworth said. "The amount of censure should be proportionate to the seriousness of the wrongdoing," he said.

"[The] priority should be to deal with such offences in the community, giving precedence to compensation or reparation for the victim and, where the offence is sufficiently serious, imposing a community sentence."

Offences that are threatening, violent or sexual – which would include burglary, blackmail and robbery – would be excluded.

Ashworth said cases in which large sums of money are involved would be "sufficiently serious" to warrant the deprivation of liberty.

His proposals were published in a pamphlet for the Howard League for Penal Reform, a charity that aims to reduce prison sentences. The pamphlet will be distributed to magistrates courts across the country.

Ashworth told the Guardian that his proposals would mainly be a question for politicians and not something "judges can do off their own back".

Frances Crook, the chief executive of the Howard League, said: "When it comes to crimes like theft and fraud, victims are losing out from a justice system that too often prioritises putting the perpetrator behind bars rather than returning people's stolen property and providing much-needed compensation."

Ashworth acknowledged that the chances of such a policy change were slim, saying: "It may well be more difficult to lower the severity of punishments than to increase their severity, not least if newspapers fanned the flames with headlines such as 'a thieves' charter'."

The justice minister, Damian Green, said: "People who commit these crimes devastate lives and cause untold misery in our communities.

"The government has no intention of changing the law to prevent judges sending them to prison. It is right they have the full range of sentencing options available to them."