Affluenza...How long before it hits Britain?

A Texas teenager who hit and killed four people while driving drunk has been spared jail due to "affluenza" - being too wealthy to realise the consequences of his actions.

Instead of the 20-year prison sentence demanded by prosecutors, Ethan Couch, 16, will attend ten years' probation at a private £275,200-a-year rehabilitation centre, paid for by his parents.

Couch was driving an SUV three times over the drink-drive limit with seven friends after stealing beer from a supermarket.

While driving 70mph in a 40mph zone they struck another vehicle that had stopped by the side of the road with a flat tyre.

It's driver and three people who had come to her assistance were killed. Two of Couch's passengers were seriously injured- one can no longer move or speak.

Despite the severity of the incident, psychologist, Dr G Dick Miller, testified in court that Couch had been so indulged by his parent growing up that they never established boundaries for his behaviour.

A year previous to the accident he had been found in a parked vehicle with an unconscious and naked 14-year-old girl, an incident his parents never punished him for.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12/14/ethan-couch-teen-drink-driver-spared-jail-affluenza-_n_4443971.html?utm_hp_ref=uk