A crime, in essence, originally daft (7)

I believe the answer is:

asinine

'daft' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'a crime in essence originally' is the wordplay.
'crime' becomes 'sin'.
'originally' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'essence' is 'e'.
'a'+'sin'+'in'+'e'='ASININE'

(Other definitions for asinine that I've seen before include "Silly like a donkey" , "Extremely stupid or foolish" , "In the nature of supposedly stupid animal" , "Is inane to be foolish" , "Stubborn" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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