xrayalpha's final comments are, perhaps, the most important to bear in mind. In aviation, prosecutions are done less to protect the community from wrongdoers and more to try and change behaviours.
One would certainly hope so.
I can't really help thinking though that for some of the blatant violations like flying without a licence the punishment should be much greater. I mean one could argue that with light aircraft the third party risk is relatively low even without a licence but actually to fine someone just a few thousand pounds for flying without one fails to do justice to what a serious business we are really in with flying, GA or otherwise...