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...