The 10 most ridiculous fines of all time

ITV was fined a record £5.7 million for misleading viewers over the conduct of phone-ins on its flagship programmes this week. But it is not just big companies that have to stump up cash in fine-happy Britain.

With an army of pettifogging bureaucrats policing your every move, you better think twice before you eat, talk, drive and even relax… the list is almost endless. Here we list ten ridiculous but true stories where the authorities have demonstrated their limited grasp of common sense…

1. Sausage rolls

A picnic in the park turned into an expensive event for Mum Sarah Davies, from Hull. While feeding her four-year-old daughter a piece of sausage roll fell to the ground. The missed-mouth incident was spotted by council wardens and Ms Davies was fined £75, even though pigeons immediately ate the evidence.

2. What a load of rubbish

With photographic evidence and stab-proof vests, Cumbria council’s bin police confronted Gareth Corkhill with the terrible crime of … putting too much rubbish in his bin. The father of four was given a whopping £210 fine, plus a £15 victim surcharge and he now has a criminal record.

3. Oops…

Litter lout Christopher Murphy dropped a single crisp packet on Irish soil and ended up in court with a 600 Euro (£480) fine. While the term litterbug is no doubt a bona fide insult, this is an example of where the fine perhaps doesn’t match the crime.

4. Trying to be creative

Pretty hearts and rainbows may seem innocent enough, except if you work for north Wales police. Two teenage girls from Bangor were charged £80 for "graffiti" after drawing chalk pictures on a pavement, Mary Poppins style, which were completely washed away by the rain soon after.

5. Keeping the kitchen tidy

Nowadays using a public bin can get you into trouble. Detectives hunted down pensioner John Richards from Lincolnshire after he carefully placed some household rubbish into a bin on a lamp post. They traced Mr Richards from an addressed envelope that was in with the kitchen scraps and accused him of fly-tipping, which attracts a fixed penalty of £75.

6. Putting your feet up

Getting comfy on a Chester-bound train can get you a criminal record. Babiker Fadol put his feet on a train seat and was arrested for anti-social behaviour, despite taking his feet down as soon as he was asked. After appearing at court charged under the 1889 Railway Regulations Act, he was forced to pay £50 and was given a criminal record.

7. Keen to help the environment?

You still won’t escape the wrath of Swansea’s eagle-eyed council officials. Michael Reeves made a grave mistake when he accidently left a piece of paper in a recycling bag reserved for glass. He was promptly taken to court and fined £200 and swears he’ll never recycle again.

8. A quick fag

Fancy a quick ciggie in your break? Think again if you’re in the taxi trade. A lone fag cost cab driver Alan Cross £715. Mr Cross was spotted smoking a cigarette in his taxi by a Thurrock Council Enforcement Officer. The matter went to court and he was slapped with £300 of fines, £400 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

9. Defrosting the car on a winter morning

One cold winter morning Ken Hardman from Lancashire nipped outside to his car, turned the engine on to defrost the windscreen and then returned inside to wait. A local police officer charged him with "quitting" (leaving a car unattended with the engine on) and fined him £30.

10. Answering a phone call safely

Unlucky Nick Tubbs was fined £120 for the crime of ... speaking to his mum on the phone. He was driving in Westminster when his mother rang so he diligently pulled over to the side of the road to take the call. He spoke for one minute and 23 seconds then immediately drove away. Sadly for Mr Tubbs, Westminster council tracked him down from CCTV footage and accused him of “parking” on a single yellow line.

List composed by Sara Turner

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Comments

[Andrea]

Obviously written as a headline grabber with very slanted content.

Anyone who has worked in local government will know how enforcement is a last resort and that the real stories behind these comments are so much different.

It is disgusting that the media poke fun and ridicule the law when it enforces local issues but cry that the law is too lenient when a major crime is put through the process. If you were more responsible, maybe England wouldn't look like one big tip.

Shame on you.

[Michael]

Pretty funny--what is (conceptually) a victim surcharge ??

[mark walker]

I personally find that it is very dissapointing that the UK finds these crazy incidents funny. They certainly aren't funny when you are on the receiving end (which happen every day). It is time that we put a stop to this nonsense-and returned to a system based on common sense and mutual respect.

[A Student]

Re number 6, a friend of mine was recently charge £50 not for having her feet on the seat of a train but for having 1 food resting on the metal support below the seat, she was threatened with 3 months jail time!

[ima gay]

ive been really touched by this as last week i put a gayporn mag in the bin and got fined 70 pound???

[Bruce Fletcher]

Why is it that common sense and government cannot exist together? I live in a small town on the North Coast of California and although we are about as far away from the U.K. as a person in the continental U.S. can be, our government officials seem to suffer from the same mental illness as those in the U.K. Best of Luck.

[Laet Oliveira]

Now I have 10 reasons for not wishing to live in England. Gosh...

[James Stanworth]

A few of these seem over zealous. However they all the raise the question, 'are they necessary for us to do'? No. 3 is a 'litter lout' and gets a healthy fine. Why not? No. 10 has to answer the phone. Why not call back later or invest in a cheap hands-free earpiece? It may be time to 'get tough' with ourselves on a few things we should/n't be doing.

[Bill Peter]

Don't forget that all these jobsworthies have to collect fines to pay for their inflation-proofed pensions.

[david]

1,2,3,5,6 and 9: All fines I approve of. No wonder this country's so filthy when there are people like this around and the newspapers give them sympathy.

[Bev]

What a very sad state of affairs to have to live in a country where such insane zealotry is encouraged. The sooner we are rid of the control freak at the head of our government who promotes it, the better it will be for all.

[Carol]

It's official, the world has gone completely mad!

[G Cooper]

All of the above examples are results of the nannying, bullying, hectoring state created by 'New' Labour.

And government ministers are wondering why the public has become so sick of them?

[Kuffar Resistance]

People seem to think they can pull up anywhere they like to answer the phone! I see seen many inappropriate and dangerous actions by drivers pulling over every single day - never mind other non-phone related dangerous driving!

[BN]

Sorry, I do not agree that fining someone for putting their feet on a train seat is ridiculous. Whether or not he put them down again when asked is irrelevant, no doubt he would have placed his feet and dirt on seats again later.

[Mark]

I think the really staggering case is the MerseyRail feet on seat one (no. 6). Here's a company who've gone way over the top with their draconian campaign. I don't know how obvious the warning signs are but surely a verbal warning would be the sensible thing to do first. To tie up the courts time (they have over 600 cases waiting) with such time wasting cases is criminal in itself. Surely a better way can be found to deal with issues like this. They also claim that they have the support of all the other passengers but I wonder how many would want someone to get a criminal record for such a petty act.

[Pauline Bird]

I'm glad that Andrea hasn't lost her sense of humour as a result of working for local government.

[katherine]

Andrea, get real. Wake up - dropping a piece of sausage roll... so what??? Someone lower on the food chain will eat it. Bureaucrats have nothing better to do than mindless, petty 'oh you can't do that I'll fine you' which are completely irrelevant to the big picture of COMMON SENSE. Fly tipping, dropping crisp packets - not good but sausage rolls and chalk drawing on the pavement, defrosting your car? Oh please. What's wrong with the UK? It's gone mad mad mad and you, Andrea, perpetuate this madness.

[Sarah]

Someone who thinks it is acceptable to throw a crisp packet on the ground deserves everything they get. Who did they think was going to pick it up after them? The fairies?

[stu]

re sausage roll - wasnt a picnic in a park. It was dropped in a city centre street and NOT picked up and placed in a bin (when it could have been). Discarded food = increased vermin, would you rather see a few fines OR more rats ?

[Harold Halloway]

Those of you who think it's OK to drop food in the street because vermin will eat it really should remove yourselves from society. You are simply too stupid to be allowed to participate any longer.

[Krzysztof Kuchciński]

Ditto to Katherine. Andrea is obviously one of those Jobsworth kind'a gals...Poor Andrea. No wonder she has no friends. If you go to visit Andrea for lunch and drop a pea on the floor...uups.....FINE!!!

[Stephen]

I remember no. 2 as this was in the papers last week. The chap responsible (who, if I remember correctly, has at least two children in his family) had put so much rubbish in his bin it was overflowing by two inches. Tsk Tsk. One word springs to mind - unbelievable!

[Mac]

It's been 12 years since I last lived in the UK. What ever happened to common sense, has that been abolished now too?

[E J Murray]

Sad to see that some posters are even blaming Gordon Brown and Co for this! Over-zealous civil-servants and red-tape beaurocrats have for decades, been living in their self-created, blinkered fantasy world. It's like global warming, another worldwide problem.

[maomwl]

Not much better in Oz. I was fined A$100 (about £50) for using a concession bus ticket.

Back then you had to get a concession sticker on your student card, and that sticker has an expiry date earlier than my student card, which, being a freshman, I had no idea of. The sticker was valid til the day before they checked my ticket on the bus.

Of course the fact that I had my drivers license and medicare card to prove I'm really a citizen was irrelevant to them.

[Ian]

Its all part of the control freak startegy by central and local government with a massive benefit of squuezing out more money for the wasteful and unaccountable public purse.

[Tony Starks]

Who is pottering around, in public I hasten to add 'reading' gay pornography?? And then think oh I have finished all the delightful articles and perused the classifieds for lovely chaps to meet, I 'll just pop that in the bin outside Woolworths. I would loved to have seen you getting gripped for that one! Priceless! How did the council chap maintain a straight face! Absolutely brilliant!

[Lucy]

Why is a 4 year old being fed a sausage roll anyway? No wonder we are all fat..

[warren]

Why does a victim have to pay a surcharge?

[Billy Barnett]

What a bunch of idiots. Get out of the UK now and leave it to the sanctimonious twits such as David who approve of fines for dropping sausage rolls. No wonder the populace of the UK is so miserable. Reading this depresses me.

[JW]

A criminal record for over-filling a rubbish bin!! Freedoms are being abused and Britain is sleeping.

New Labour has been a disaster for Britain - having lost control of the streets, jobsworth officials are now cracking down on decent, law-abiding people instead of going after the yobs and thugs.

Gutless council officials and CSOs are hammering those who don't offer aggression and violence.

[ali khan]

Britain is a ridiclously regulated country. They chase minor offences but don't bother much abotu major crimes and injustices that happen in this country. Murder of young boys on streets of London, homeless people. excessive drinking and related crimes, and above all thousands of il-legal immigrants living and working in UK.

[Marbals Ritchy]

The diversity of the comments above shows the intense indifferences and negativitiy in the UK. Compassion and understanding come second to brute anger. Its becoming worse by the day.

I've heard people shout at cars to slow down, when they are driving well within the speed limit. Bubble world is the key point here, dont people ever stop to think about what they are trying to uphold, blanket misjudgement and misguided individuals is due to ignorance of reality, love and compassion are no longer key factors.

My view? I dont have any to share. Just the analysis of cause and reaction - I conclude that it will only get worse.

If its not litter bugs, its speeding, if its not speeding its terrorism - in most cases, people are quick to jump to conclusions, and sadly when they are already in too deep in those conclusions of theirs - pulling out and apologising is not a viable option to them at a concious level and thus have to prove a point.

Judges love doing the 'prove a point' thing too, afterall, courts MAKE money from cases, lack of cases and the judicial system loses out... it is a continuous balance of chicken and egg in retrospect...

[carl]

david | 9 May 2008 06:23:51.

Are you on something. How can dropping food on the floor justify a crime. If that is the case every time I feed the ducks in my lunch hour I need to be locked up. I only agree on no. 3. Have you never played hop scotch (and chalked on the floor) - maybe you would prefer children to hang out in gangs. Also maybe your bins are emptied every week, mine are not, so I can't help but over fill them.

Sir you are a fool.

[John Polenski]

You know the trouble with all this? That you present it as funny. Yeah OK, you have to laugh. But it really isn't funny, not a bit of it.

[Jess H]

I think there is a difference between actively feeding animals, and just leaving food on the floor. Maybe if we were more responsible for our own actions then we wouldnt be moaning about the consequences. There is a reason why cities in places like Singapore are so clean, and that is because they are so heavily punished for littering. I know I would rather live somewhere where I was clean and didnt get fined, than somewhere where people can litter wherever they like and feel they can get away with it.

[George Orwell]

This is just the start, when our psychologists have finished with you, and our financial wizards have destroyed your pathetic economies, you will beg to get into the concentartion camps we are having built for you right now. Your all born criminals with defective genes and deserve to go to camps were you can better serve the superior ruling classes.

[Liam Butcher]

While some of these seem somewhat trivial, others are perfectly justified - no.3 in particular. If anything, I feel a greater fine was in order - who cares how much rubbish he threw, the concept is exactly the same and should be punished.

[Huw Sayer]

You missed the one about the father who was fined for flying a Jolly Roger (skull and cross bones) flag over his front door when holding a pirate themed birthday party for his kids - apparently a (good?) neighbour complained (presumably they thought they would have to walk the plank) and the cops were so bored with trying to clear up real crime that they took on the case. God knows what they would have made of the two boat loads of pirates I saw on the River Bure last week!

[Xray]

Revolution is the answer. A rather small army could easily take over your country and set it straight, pushing all those socialists out of their little offices.

[Nick Wilson]

Households are entitled to ask the council for an additional bin if they are moved to fortnightly collections.
They may have to demonstrate that they are recycling as much as possible.
This needs much wider publicity.

Littering and putting dirty shoes on train seats are both anti-social activities that fully warrant a fine. There's nothing "ridiculous" about either of those. And it seems to me that the phenomenally stupid individual who left his car unattended with the keys in the ignition clearly needs saving from himself - he's lucky to have only lost £30, and not the whole car.

[Jess H]

Nice contribution "George"

[chris field]

It just shows what a pityful state the country has falled into when there are so many "excess" public employees waiting to pounce.

Cut the waste by cutting public sector employment and give people a chance to get on with their lives undistrubed by intrustive public employees. Who knows it may even fund the return of the 10p tax band.

[Melissa]

Oh my goodness..have we all lost our sense of humour??..lighten up!!!

[mike sanders]

Feet on seat should be on the spot €100 and removed at next station. Second offence banned for life I don't want to sit on a seat that has had somebody else's feet on it. This is loutish behaviour of the worst kind.
Transportation to Australia could be considered.

[Basil Sanders Sydney]

Thanks for this story you've made my mind up.

I am intending to emigrate from Sydney because we have the same problem here.

Where to? London or Moscow?

I read of a person who did an illegal u-turn over double yellow lines in the centre of Moscow. (In Australia that would be a very hefty fine and more points on your license - probably the same as the UK I expect).

In Moscow? The person was pulled over by the police who charged him an "on-the-spot" fine (ie bribe) of 30 roubles (about 1 or 2 pounds) which is paid to the policeman and everybody gets on with their life.

Sounds like old Blighty has the same problem we have here in Oz, so you have made my decision for me!!

Thank you!!

PS I WILL continue to read the Times on the Internet!!!

[James]

Look we have to remember that 4 legs (politcians) good, 2 legs (the general public) bad.

The Cabinet is mostly lawyers who can only think of solutions in terms of more laws and jobs for their mates at the Bar and in enforcement.

It's the same reason Ken wanted more human-intensive schemes at City Hall, cos those he employs aren't going to vote the regime and themselves out of a job.

[james hunter]

obviously common and sense are mutually exclusive.
now i know why so many poms come to Australia; not to say we dont have a good collection of narrow minded little hitlers over here.
comment though, in oz, if the car is manned and stationary it is only standing,not parked.it is only parked after the driver leaves the car. is it the same there?

[Ricky]

Don't concern yourself with the parked car laws in Oz my friend...unlike my fellow pomes who have not yet seen the light and got their sorry butts out of there, we will never need to leave our engines running to "defrost" the car anyway!!!

Britain has gone mad...just like the time during the last world cup when my local council in Lancashire had to remove the St. George flag from it's mast due to discontent amongst our Asian friends that it caused them "offence". Do yourselves a favour...get out whilst you still can and join the rest of us who have seen the light and are living very happy and stress free lives in the land of opportunity!!!

[Steve]

Mark, you shouldn't need a sign to tell you not to put your feet on the seats. Basic good manners dictates that.Perhaps you are one of those who needs notices asking you not to eat in a bookshop.

[Alex Smith]

These are examples of a Predatory State. A State which exists not as a collective of citizens for their welfare but believing it to be above and beyond them and with malign intention creating laws and regulations to "get" the people. We are no longer citizens but are assumed to be property of the State as examplified by State taking away people's children.

[Luke Nicolaides]

Usual case of policing those who consent to be policed. The council bueaucrats wouldn't dare confront some drunk sho discards his half eaten kebab on the floor at 3am on a Saturday night. In fact London Borough of Sutton have never bothered to even reply to me when I complain about the mess my road is regularly left in after the weekend!

[IAN]

I find it so annoying when we get these 'its political correctness gone mad' comments & tabloid sensationalisation about these cases. The guy in Hull who got fined and a criminal record for his bin ... is Hull swimming in victims of the bin Police ? Are the council cracking down on untidy people ? No, its more likely that he had persistently been leaving food strewn around the place attracting rats and vermin and had already received warnings about it ... of course where's the humour in that.

Boo

[Tom Taylor-Duxbury]

And here's me thinking my dad helped defeat Fascism those many decades ago.
Seems out brown shirts are alive and well and mostly working in local governments or a quango.
These "officials" should question them selves and feel a deep sense of abject shame, but I fear they are control freaks.
Sure fine any less than contrite offender, and always seek contrition. You can only police by consent. Otherwise we have a police state - which I'm afraid is just what this smacks of.

[Jessica]

What is scary is the "antisocial behavior" charge? Who, exactly, decides what that entails?

[John]

People who put their feet on seats should have them cut off there and then. That would stop 'em. And they can pay for the Befooting and clean up any blood stains as well.

[Edward Hyde]

Having lived in both the Uk and Oz, I can sympathise with all those who are frustrated with the small mindednes of all this. Am now living in Malaysia where the general attitude is positive and a certain amount of "common sense" prevails when dealing with over zelous governement officials. Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly a fact that the heafty fine system in Singapore promotes a safe and hazard free environment. Each to there own, I say. EH.

[Chris]

Once again we find that Blair's, now Brown's, Britain seeks to make criminals of all its citizens, except of course those who are dangerous or violent. There may be some truth in the fact that these people were fined as a last resort and certainly feet on train seats and littering are examples of inconsiderate or loutish behaviour but I suspect too many of us have come across the bureaucratic zealot, armed with a statute and a pen (assuming he/she can write) who goes to town at the first or every available opportunity.
While it's possible we may not have the full stories here and that there are potential health hazards that may result from a couple of these stories it seems to be that some are just plain daft. If the one about the two teeenage girls drawing with chalk on the pavement is true then quite honestly our beloved police forces have truly lost the plot. Maybe the paperwork involved in recording the 'crime' should be inversely proportional to the severity of the crime to deter over-enthusiastic behaviour from our public guardians? Mind you that would probably result in us paying over the odds for a bunch of administrators - or is that what we've now got anyway. Is there anywhere left where an individual can be free from this petty tyranny?

[Peter]

I would suggest the irritation with all this is the complete lack of balance. Millionare footballers do not have their licences taken away because they can affored good lawyers. Where-as some chap gets a 500 pound fine for dropping litter. How about suitable punishements instead...get caught littering...spend a week cleaning up litter. Get caugh with you feet on the seats....spend a week cleaning the seats. The mindless application of fines will not stop the crimes being comitted but a week shovling dog poop might just.

[john lawrence]

Councils - Don't make me laugh, Andrea!!

We all know that the vast majority of these fines are just revenue exercises with overzealous powermongers - council wardens are now equally as hated as traffic wardens.

Both have taken the liberty to exert the extreme on the law-abiding citizen that makes a genuine mistake in most instances.

Andrea get a life and get a valid viewpoint!

[John]

Absolutely. There should be a policy of zero tolerance against this insane petty officialdom. Perhaps they could be taught a lesson by being forced to tidy up other people's litter, and clean dirty seats on buses and trains. Then the rest of use could get on with our lives unhindered.

[Tim Bartlett]

The DVLA is threatening to take me to court because I am refusing to pay a penalty charge for being late renewing my car tax.
The thing is: it's not my car (I sold it an the middle of January) and the only reason the tax disc has "expired" is because the DVLA refunded it when I sold the car!

The trouble is that with a legal system that is so corrupt that it allows magistrates to boast about being "partners" with the police and local councils (I thought justice was supposed to be blind and balanced?), they will probably win.

[Nick]

Terrible waste iof people's time and money. I litter quite a bit because I my council taxes pay for people to clean up. Why should I pay and then waste my time looking for a bin every time I need to throw a wrapper away?

[Ian, Durham]

It's nice to know that some people are being recognised for the louts they are and are being penalised by the courts. I'm absolutely fed up with littering and the way most people get away with unsociable behavoir. It is high time some people were recognised for what thet are and get fined accordingly. It just might act as a deterrant for other people who try to get away with everything they can without any consideration for the rest of the community.

[+447767767675]

ITV deserved its fine, in fact got off lightly.

But the other examples show how much of our liberty has been taken away from us by Blair & Brown. Kick Labour out for ever.

[Matthew McGovern]

What wonderful snippets of the insanity of bureaucracy. The extreme cases, of putting the cart before the horse, are always good for a laugh. The best, I must say myself, was the recycling fellow who swore, “To never recycle again”. Grand…juts grand!

Cheers from the States

[charlie]

its crazy that a thug gets community service for severly assaulting an old lady
by pulling her to the ground whilst
trying to steal her purse.and a poor lady gets fined for dropping a piece off sausage roll the person that autherises the fines are just as bad but the recycling one is just {if it was not so sad} would be funny.

[Matthew]

No. 10 is interesting - forget about investing in all the hands free stuff (though I think you should) or taking the call later (it wouldn't be a bad idea) - why doesn't anybody raise the issue of the camera?!?

I mean, seriously people! You let the government walk all over you. They tax you to death then use those funds to set up very expensive CCTV systems all over our roadways (to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars (pounds - I don't know) per single unit) so they can catch you and take more of your money, only now they can do it more readily because you already paid for their cameras.

When are we going to wake up to the fact that the governments, both of the Unites States and of England, are not friendly towards the people?!

[e skelton]

And how exactly is number 3 not a justified enforcement of the law?

[S. Turner]

"I litter quite a bit because I my council taxes pay for people to clean up. Why should I pay and then waste my time looking for a bin every time I need to throw a wrapper away?"

Good god. Don't you see that if people didn't throw their rubbish in the streets, people wouldn't have to be taxed so that other people could to be paid to clean up after them?

You're probably the same sort of person who puts their dog crap in plastic bags and then hangs it in trees for the fairies to take away.

[steve tea]

All thanks to legislation passed while Labour has been in office.

[Ron Graves]

List composed by Sara Turner, it says...

I do hope not - I'd rather hoped the list was true, and merely compiled by Sara Turner.

[Mike]

Andrea, you're waffling a lot of nonsense. Everybody is well aware that the IDEAL is for prosecution to be the last resort but that in reality it all too soon jumps to the front of the queue (probably an arrestable offence in itself soon!).

We poke fun at you because you have no sense of humour and are carrying out legislation put in place by a government (and local governments) that act without any thought for accountability.

If you can't tell the difference between litter dropping and a "major crime" then perahaps the problem lies with you and not with the media.

[Romi Mahay]

One can see why this is the forthcomming generation whereby 60% of the population will have a criminal record.

The carrot and stick approach of the criminal justice system, has a sentencing structure such as fines (The stick). With nothing to say 80% of the population having a criminal record, role model behaviour of 15 years should have records removed. (The carrot).

What is going to be the value of the criminal record system where 80% of the population may have a criminal record in 20 years time.

When criminal records have been aquired, they can become excluded by the employment market increasing the crime rates. This cyclic effect is damaging to society and needs a reward system of removing records for good conduct in society albeit of minor crimes whereby fines are less than £500.

[Stuart]

I personally wouldn't worry about the criminal records resulting from these "crimes". Its only a matter of time before the Government loses these records as well.

[Ignatz Horowitz]

Wow. Must suck to live in England.

[Steve]

Apart from 3 which appears to be a clear case of littering by an adult, and perhaps 6 (though I disagree personally, I can see other people's perspective on this) I find it disturbing that some people are defending these fines. Frightening that people are will to support unwarranted authoritarianism like this.

[David]

A criminal record might be just the thing to avoid conscription into the Army when nobody volunteers to fight for a corrupt government any more.Whatever next? An ASBO for thinking out loud? Remember the Poll-Tax riots!

[AndyPandy]

The problem is we keep putting up with this. We re-elect local officials and governments who treat us like idiots who have no common sense. Soon there will be an offence of "failing to re-elect the labour government" and we will be punished by being treated with common sense by the Conservatives...

[Sharon]

A local travel agent in Hartlepool had a visit from council officials this week, asking how he disposes of obsolete brochures. He proudly informed them he takes them to the local recycling centre for disposal. The response? He's not allowed to do that unless he has a trade waste disposal licence. We're just waiting for them to ask us - we're going to tell them we take our trade waste home to the rear of our shop and burn it on a bonfire!

[Greg Fester]

While the incidents posted are now sadly common place in this day and age, a few years ago there were some notable comparisons.

A friend of mine now sadly passed away, was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment in the 1960s for stealing horse manure from a field owned by a local racing stable.

On his release when asked if he would do it again, he said "No", but added if he had thought he was going to do time for stealing horse dung, he would have made it worth it and pinched a racehorse.

I don't think he was joking.

[Jacqueline Stuart]

I have been fortunate enough to live in Slovenia for the past 2 years. Whenever I return to the UK I am always struck by the general filth and litter. Anything the government can do to improve things should be welcomed. The state of the streets in Britain is a disgrace.

[waspie]

This country is full of pathetic little jumped saddos who sole purpose in life is to make life difficult to impossible for those normal people. Too bad the Soviet Union is no more as there is nowhere else to send to put their talents to good use. They work for local councils, utilities and government departments. If the UK had been invaded by the Nazis they would have been down the local Gestapo office to volunteer before you say Gordon Brown.

[SA]

What more can any one say when reading this. Obviously the council and goverment teams are putting are hard well earned pennies and pounds to good use!!!!! And who said it was only the: history, politics and general studies students who only did 4hrs a week would go and work in the public sector!!!!!!

[SA]

What more can any one say when reading this. Obviously the council and goverment teams are putting are hard well earned pennies and pounds to good use!!!!! And who said it was only the: history, politics and general studies students who only did 4hrs a week would go and work in the public sector!!!!!!

[DJ]

I hate litter and dislike people who drop it.

However, the minutiae here are surely more to do with a society that's lost its sense of perspective.

I guess loss of empire means that bureaucracy has to find a way to perpetuate itself.

[ea]

why not get rid of the idiot who ''runs'' the country, get rid of the always ugly (& not just outside) parking wardens, and change our traditional anal ways about everything, why don't you all get a LIFE?!!!!

[Ben]

EVERY time I walk just over a mile to a nearby village,I pick up items of litter tossed on this country B road .
Unfortunately I never catch the tossers.

[Roger Hull]

I find it really strange that some of the people who have commented disapprove of louts being fined for dropping litter or putting their feet on seats in trains. What sort of anarchical cesspit of a society are they advocating?

[Ian]

I don't understand - these are not controversial. If someone drops a crisp bag, it is likely they drop all their rubbish on the street. There is no reason to ruin other peoples environment because of laziness. You'll be complaining about penalities for accidentaly not seeing a pedestrian in the road next.

[Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

Geeeez some people need to get laid!!! None of these "crimes" are anything that any of hasn't on occasion done, so drop the better than thou act. You're not.

And for the record the US isn't much better. Have you heard of the crazy zero tolerance policies in our schools??? A kindergardener was EXPELLED for drawing a PICTURE of a gun.

[George]

If you're gonna get a Criminal Record for petty things like many of those listed here then why not make it worthwhile?

[alan Dean]

"Resting feet on seats,would anyone mind, if I took off me shoes first?"

[Dave]

A neighbour of mine also had the windscreen defrosting habit. He'd leave his company car on the drive and around 6:20am each weekday would start the engine running. One morning someone got in it and drove it away. He phoned the police convinced that they'd be able to do something about it.

They did, they told him he'd invalidated his insurance and that someone would come round some time and fill out a crime report.

Both the insurance company and his employer refused to foot the bill and insisted that he did. The only way he could raise the money to pay for the loss was to sell his house and downsize.

Seems to me that for £30, Ken Hardman got a cheap lesson, it cost this bloke around £16,000.

[Mike Rogers]

Littering - that makes sense. People who litter should be fined.
All the other fines are typical of this joke of Labour government. Hopefully these pathetic rubbish-bin fines will be removed from the statute books come 2010. Bye bye Brown.

[Student in need of a sane governemnt]

Okay... Some of them I personally agree with however how can the local government even think they are anyway helping us by charging us stupid fines and then on buses charging college students (16-19 year olds) £5 return for a less than 3 mile journey! I mean I've had to start work because they dont accept student discounts on buses and they think that a young student and other people in the same position can afford such stupid bus fares and also such pathetic fines. Get Real

[neil]

I just saw 18 PCO and police officers outisde my holborn office this morning.

Major crime:> of course ! checking bus tickets....

bunch of jumped up traffic wardens(pCOS) playing at being coppers and harrasing people.total waste of resources