There is one law for the rich and another for the poor. What else can one conclude from the decision by the City of London police not to investigate the former UK chief executive of JC Flowers for fraud? This week Britain’s Financial Services Authority hit Ravi Shankar Sinha with a ￡2.8m financial penalty, the biggest ever imposed on an individual for an infringement not related to market abuse. In its findings, the FSA said Mr Sinha had acted “without honesty or integrity” in fraudulently obtaining ￡1.3m in fees from one of the private equity group’s portfolio companies and abusing his position of trust with his employer. In the legal lexicon, this translates as grounds for fraud investigation.

Dishonesty against an employer is taken particularly seriously in the UK. A gross breach of trust is rarely dealt with in the magistrates’ courts, but goes immediately to the crown court, where a prison sentence is a near certainty on conviction. That is how Joyti De-Laurey, a secretary who stole ￡4.4m from Goldman Sachs in 2004, was sent down for seven years. But heavy jail terms are normal even for far smaller breaches. Which is why the decision not to push ahead with a full criminal inquiry into Mr Sinha’s conduct smacks of double standards.

The City of London Police were clearly in a difficult position, given JC Flowers’ reported lack of enthusiasm to pursue charges. It is regrettable that the UK has historically been more reluctant to convict and impose long sentences in cases of white-collar crime than in Hong Kong or the US. Without the determined support of the putative victim, the chances of securing a conviction quickly dwindle.