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

[B J Deller]

Alex USA, I worked in the USA for two years in the 1960s and recently visited New York for a short holiday. It is fantastic where ALL US citizens respect and revere those who have fought for their country. As an ex-RAF "vet", I was treated very well when asked such at the tourist venues where most had free or reduced admission fees for vets. UK has a lot to learn from good old USA, God bless her.

[John]

What is a victim surcharge?

[Clinton666]

You folks in merry old England want socialism, you got it, choke on it. I am hoping that the Americian Politicians that push socialism get cancer and die, dead. Water board all of them, no water battery acid.

[Steven]

Ok I dont think ANYONE see's the bigger picture here.

To hand out "Criminal offences" means...

Any job that a person applies for (even packing shelfs at Tesco) they will not get, as all employment forms have a box

"Have you ever been convicted of a Criminal Offense"

So these "Criminals" will not be getting that job.

Thus you are going to be forcing people to turn to crime and become a criminal. As they will be the "Only" job they can get.

Then dont be surprised if the people become angry, resentful and possibly violent.

Understanding that...Are you surprised that "violent crime against the person" is UP??

Understanding that...Are you surprised that the jails are FULL??

I dont have a problem with the fines per se, but ruining someones life because of it, is totally and completely wrong, and it show little understanding of how this act will transform society into a very ugly place.

So dont be surprised if people ("Criminals") want and take vengence.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...

[Peter houghton]

Get this for a fine which was upheld by Louth Linc's uk Magistrates:
while passing a police car on the outskirts of town, on my motorcycle, with my wife riding pillion, I was pulled over by a police car and [I had smiled at my wife as I passed the police car] I was charged with taking the micky out out of the policemen in the car! Result I was fined a weeks wages by the court! and we are expected to respect officers of the law!?

[Alan]

What about the workers?

[Snafu Xanex III]

Man, they're tough in England. If they're so good at catching these targets, I can only imagine how good the authorities are at catching violent offenders and such. What? England has a crime problem? No!

[Alex]

As a former American police officer, I remember one policeman who dragged an elderly man before the judge for littering.

The man was obviously not well and he explained that he dropped his mail, but he couldn't reach down to pick it up due to his severe arthritis.

The man walked bent over, like a hunch-back, used a cane and was very remorseful. The judge spoke to the man in full view of the officer. The judge asked if he was a veteran. The man replied he served in two wars and was wounded three times in combat.

The judge became very angry and chastized the cop verbally in open court. The spectators smiled in approval. The judge offered his apologies to the elderly, crippled veteran, and told the officer that if he was presented such a case again, where members of the public were abused, he would consider holding the officer in contempt of court.

The elderly man left the courtroom, aided by the judge's baliffs. The arresting officer was embarrassed and I believe he called the cops commander to inform him of his lack of compassion, judgment and maturity.

Good job, your honor! Bravo!

Personally, I would have enjoyed seeing the officer leave the courtroom with an imprint of the judge's shoe on the seat of his pants!

[Greg]

When I was a kid, back in the cold part of the USA, cars needed to be warmed up before being driven. Come each morning in winter, probably 75% of all cars would be warming up in the driveways for a few minutes. Always with the driver in the house.

It was unsafe! (Note: sarcasm.) Untended cars went zooming off to roam the streets (Note: still sarcasm.) Every day, you'd read stories in the paper about how many people were squashed the morning before. (Still sarcasm.)

Without sarcasm, one can say that literally millions of people "quitted" their car every day, and there can't have been more than a few injuries.

Anyhow, I suspect that if you'd look into the statistics, the poor guy who left his car to warm up created about a one-in-a-million risk of smashing his own garage, and a rather smaller risk of actually hurting someone.

[Cfishy]

You people are crazy for staying in such an Orwellian, controlling system. It's absolutely disgusting, but all you do is complain when you could be doing something to change it. If a fine is unfair, DON'T PAY IT.

[Andy T]

I'm not sure who makes money out of this. If I get a criminal record I can't work in my profession and don't think I'll find another job too easily at my age. It's going to cost the state to house and feed my family as well as the lost tax.

[Andy T]

I'm not sure who makes money out of this. If I get a criminal record I can't work in my profession and don't think I'll find another job too easily at my age. It's going to cost the state to house and feed my family as well as the lost tax.

[Martin]

A lot of these fines are actually in contravention of the 1689 Bill of Rights (and the Magna Carta too), which stipulates that fines must be "proportionate" - which these clearly are not. What we need is a couple of test cases based on the Bill of Rights to sort this issue out.

[B Phillips]

Surely it is up to the magistrate or judge to pour scorn on these little Hitlers when they appear in court to present their case.
If the magistrate or judge fails to do so then their own competance as law officers should be called into question and it is they who should be censored accordingly.

[Matt]

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

No it hasnt but its a taxable asset and not many can afford it :-)

[colin young]

I don't see any problem with number 9 at all. I don't think any merit a criminal record though.

[ricardo]

It would be interesting to see the regulation prohibiting 'putting feet/shoes on railway carriage seats'. Possible defences: Put newspaper on the seat. Then neither shoes nor feet are 'on' the seat, they ar 'on' the paper. If reg says 'shoes' - remove them first. If reg says 'feet' - then point out that 'feet' are not in contact with seat, shoes are. Always good to check the wording for loopholes!

[Abdullah]

CCTV cameras were paid for with our tax in order to stop muggings etc. Now they are all turned pointing at the roads and mug us on a regular basis. We are the mugs for letting our elected representatives do this to us.

[Mike Evans]

Interesting to see posters who defend littering. A big cultural shift is obviously needed in this country.

[K. Noble]

I can’t help thinking that those fines are invented to help to increase the revenue (which is badly needed) of local and governmental departments……

[anon]

I bet if the man who put his feet on the seats was a teenager the fine wouldn't be slagged off.

[Eliyahu]

Criminal records for these offences? Perhaps the UK needs to adopt the system we have here in the US where infractions such as these are not considered "criminal", but are merely administrative civil violations with no effect other than depleting one's purse.

[trevor]

as long as we have these busy jobs worths attacking the innocents in our society and afraid to tackle the anti social youth on our streets i dont think anybody will have any faith with our councils and police and the option of fining people who leave their bin lids open obviously dont have 3 children like me who has to try to manage all my rubbish in a smaller bin fortnightly its a disgrace

[Lucye]

Britain in a nutshell.. nothing else to do so they go around trying to catch people doing things which are 'illegal.' Some people really do need to get a life.. But i guess if i was a council warden with a job like that i would do that as well as i would have nothing better to do.

[JB]

I've been to Bangor, it's a dreary place. The two girls should have been paid £80 for going to the trouble of lightening it up a bit!

[Mat]

What really bugs me about these "I think these fines are perfectly justified" comments, is that they really aren't seeing the bigger picture, which is that we, as members of the public, are receiving more and more fines for ridiculous things, when criminals have never had it so easy.

I'm sick of innocent, law-abiding people getting fines heaped on them for piddling little things, whilst criminals, actual, law-breaking scumbag criminals, like burglars, are being allowed to sue the people they wrong because they bruised themselves on a badly fitted shelf after smashing their way into someone's home, and in some cases, also getting off scot free, save for a small fine.

'Putting your feet up on a seat', is this really anti-social? Having someone screaming abuse at you in your own home through an adjoining wall is anti-social (I've had that), putting your feet up on a seat isn't. You may not like it, and may consider it disgusting, but it really isn't anti-social. Besides, if people asked for him not to do it, and he complied, why wasn't this enough? "I don't want to sit on a seat that's had other people's feet on it", I really shouldn't worry about people's feet. Have you ever stopped to consider how often those seats actually get a thorough deep clean. Shoes ought to be the least of your worries.

If you think these are 'crimes' then really need to rethink your value system and I pray you are never victim of a real crime, because if you think £400 for dropping litter is justified, you may not feel the same way when your burglar receives the same 'sentence'.

Common sense in this country is now well and truly dead.

[DL]

I agree the fines are often out of proportion to the offence - however to those who think that council and other public officials are underworked, the whole point of these regimes is to reduce the amount of work needed to keep the environment clean and tidy. One warden doing prevention is a lot cheaper than a team of cleaners with an expensive cleansing wagon.

We are quick enough to complain when there is a mess and expect the council to clean it up, preferably without paying up for the service through our council tax.

An alternative approach might be to train wardens to explain why littering / feet on seats / blocking roads etc is anti-social and disapproved of. Experience tells us that the net result is often verbal abuse and occasionally physical violence, with no indication that the person won't do it again.

Of course as others have mentioned the real solution would be to educate our young (and not so young) people to respect the place they live, the people they live among and the standards expected of them. The need for (although perhaps not the existance of) jobsworths would then be greatly reduced.

[Paul]

What amazes me is the short-sightedness of the governments that create these petty mindless laws.
Before these laws, the population was generally speaking stable, patriotic, willing to defend its freedoms.
Now, we have a population which asks itself `what freedoms?'
If a government wanted to demoralise a population, make it disinclined to defend its freedoms, this is the way to do it.
It really makes me suspect that it is some kind of political conspiracy.

[Kathleen Evans]

I'm from the US - and let's talk about fines. My car broke down, was parked off the road where no one could see it, on private property. I had to buy a permit to NOT drive my car! Cost me $25.00. The tags on my new car had expired 4 months before I even bought it. I had to pay the fine or DMV would not allow me to register it. We ALL are being over-controlled, over-scrutinized, over-taxed, over-regulated. From GPS car systems to cell phones, to library books read. Yes, here in the States that information can be accessed. Nowhere is there privacy anymore, and all of our freedoms in supposedly free countries are slowly being eroded. Big Brother has been here for a long time.

[V]

You are missing the whole concept. I feel like I'm reading a Benny Hill script. Half of you want to be under the "protection" of a government system the other half- I don't know what you want. It simply amazes me that a nation which once ruled the world will put up with the fecal regulations you let your local government put on the books.

[Jennifer]

Good Lord. Are you all insane? If public officials have so much time on their hands, that they can write up fines for these sorts of things, then there are clearly far too many of them, and mass firings should commence.

Glad my mother emigrated. It seems the majority of you lot are far too grumpy, miserable, and far too concerned with what other people are doing.

[Nige from France]

Remember that your DNA can now be taken for every arrest.
All these'criminals' can now be logged. Frightening!!!!!!!!

[David]

Oh to be in England now that aprils there. April the first year long.
Its good to live somewhere else
David . S.Africa

[Roge Wheeler]

I am so glad I don't live in Britain anymore, what a hell hole.

[Leroy G Dog]

I think it's about time we started clamping down on these heinous crimes. I'm sick and tired of hearing about knife / gun crime, rape and mugging. People are finally focusing on what's important - ensuring kids don't draw on pavements with chalk.

[PETE]

Stu, you Sir are a complete retard. Maybe you should try re-investigating these terrible charges, every point you make is incorrect. Goddam window licker

[TigerBoy]

the woman in hull actually committed the littering offence outside the central library. that the sausage roll was quickly consumed by pigeons only serves to underline the fact that rubbish attracts vermin, which is precisely why she was fined in the first place. no doubt she will be back in the papers when a rat bites her child.

[C.Mongler]

loldongs

[Stu]

Unfortunately, as so often happens, the entire stories are not displayed.

1 - She was actually prosecuted for throwing the wrapper on the floor. This fine was later scrapped in part to the outcry caused by the media's sensationalisation of the story.

2 - The bin was "a good six inches open" according to the photographs supplied by the council to the magistrate.

3 is pretty self evident and sensible.

4 - The fine was overturned in the end although it was issued due, in part, to complaints from residents over chalk grafitti in Bangor. However I will agree this was excessive

5 - Why was he dumping it in a public bin and not a wheelie bin that he could get from the council?

6 - On all the trains there are now warnings saying that you can get a fine for putting your feet up - if you ignore these then you have no one else to blame. Oh and he's 45 - surely old enough to know better?

7 - Again more misreporting. The bag contained "half paper and half tins" and the evidence was obtained from a piece of junk mail. The bags are well labeled and it's easy to accidently confuse them.

8 - Any vehicle that is used for work is a workplace. Therefore you may not smoke in it. So well publicised that he has no one else to blame again.

9 - As commented above, this guy was lucky to still have the vehicle. Use an ice scraper next time

10 - The gentleman was parked near a busy junction, on single yellow lines and forcing vehicles to swerve around him, severely disrupting traffic. If you were trying to get around him, wouldnt you be annoyed?

So to be honest, it helps when you have the full picture, not the selective reporting that blights our media.

[SRL]

How anyone can think number 6 is not deserving of a much larger punishment is beyond me? Probably p*ssing down with rain outside and lots of other passengers standing to boot ... but "he took his feet down as soon as asked"

3 also!!

There is someone above who thinks that dropping a fag end is ok as well!!

All neatly capture good reasons I don't live in the UK

[Robert]

I forecast a mirror world of 1984.
Enjoy, good people of UKland.

[Watt Story]

It seems a bit strange that in an article entitled 'The 10 most ridiculous fines of all time' people are getting themselves so worked up. Isn't this meant to be light hearted amusment?
Only a small part of the story is reported; there is no background, and it is impossible to know the full circumstances.
As a second point, I a curious how people have managed to equate these reports to the Labour government of the past few years. They seem to imply that all of society's ills would be solved by changing the government, it would be a first if it did.

[KEN]

I quite liked George Orwell's ironic use of poor grammar and spelling. But I think he there should be a system of fines in place to control this behaviour.

[Dave]

AS well as issuing fines I wonder if the officers get a bonus .Regarding loss of humour..you can't lose what you've never had.

[D M]

None of the 10 surprised me after spending 30 odd years in this so called 'free country'. I am reminded of a work colleague who was given a £50 fine for dropping a cigarette end on the street. Fair enough but I had to laugh because there was at least a dozen other ends all lying about in the same general area and not one of the bins nearby had an ashtray he could have used instead.

SL BAUR: fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste anywhere other than a proper bin or an authorised landfill site.

[SL Baur]

None of the penalties seemed appropriate, but what do I know? I don't like littering and love Singapore for being so clean, but ...

May I ask someone to translate "fly-tipping" into American English?

[Joe M]

Are you still "the freest people in the world"? Sad thought for the rest of the world if you are.

[Tony]

Hi I was slapped with a fixed penalty fine of 75 ponds for dropping a flower my 3 year old picked to show me..... dropping litter says the fine.

[Roger Hull]

In response to Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeee's comment of 2 Sep, I was brought up, not dragged up, so I do not drop litter in the street or put my feet on seats on public transport, neither occassionally nor regularly. Those that do deserve to be fined. I don't want to live in a country that resembles a rubbish tip.

[Alex]

RE: Overflowing rubbish bin!

I have real sympathy for this guy - his bin was full but not untidy - what do we pay our council tax for? Also how can they suggest reducing the frequency of rubbish collections and increasing the frequency of fines. Please, please please - GET A LIFE! and have a little bit of perspective!