The prevailing notion is that the Alanis Morissette's song “Ironic” is not ironic at all, but instead simply full of bummers, is a pedantic and sad case of unimaginative people wielding sexist bias to dismiss Alanis as dumb.

A defence lawyer described it as “a very sad case” where the defendant has been “extremely remorseful.”

"This is plainly a dreadfully sad case," he said.

Det Con Chris Underwood, from Nottinghamshire Police's Fraud Investigation unit, said this was a "very sad case" of fraud driven by addiction.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which is responsible for this type of legislation, said it was " very sorry to hear about this sad case".