BENEDICT Tanudjojo is clearly a very, very intelligent man, who has been a very stupid boy.

Here is a PhD student at one of the top universities in the world, who could one day lead his field in medicine, who is so lacking in common sense that he takes a real gun out and waves it about in a busy hospital car park.

This was an act not just of idiocy, but one that also posed a danger of creating real panic and alarm – in fact, it did create real panic and alarm, and ended up taking up a large amount of police time.

Had he been a thug from a council estate with a list of previous offences, he might be starting a custodial sentence today.

As it is, he was let off with a slap on the wrist and a fine.

Tanudjojo becomes the latest in a long line of Oxford University students who, because of their 'bright prospects', are treated differently at sentencing.

This isn't necessarily wrong in principle – magistrates were satisfied that this man was a buffoon rather than a risk to the public, but it does send a message that some might interpret as positive bias. Should clever people get off more lightly for doing stupid things? Answers on a postcard...