Paying a fine

sarahg1969

What he has received is not a fine, but a fixed penalty notice.

He does have the option to ask for a court hearing instead, but, unless successful, will, without doubt, end up with a larger fine from the Mags, and probably costs on top of that too.

The only reason for asking for the court to deal with it would realistically be if he wanted to plead not guilty, but he accepts he's done it. I don't think there's any point going before the court just to plead that he's a nice guy and try and appeal to their better nature.

Even if he said he'd not done it, he'd have a hard job convincing Mags that his word was more believable than the enforcement officers'.

Inactive

Nanny State UK again.

Perhaps next time he should just carry on smoking his ciggy in to the shop, he is less likely to get nicked for that.:rolleyes:

furrybloke

What legal power do these people have to stop you? What would happen if you just walked away mid conversation or just ignored them to start with?

shellsuit

What's to stop people who get caught doing this, giving a false name?

Do they ask for ID and if so, what if you didn't have any on you?

chipmunk

I don't understand people who try to defend littering by saying the enforcers should concentrate on "real criminals" or suggesting walk away or ignore them.

I do agree that the authorities seem to concentrate on the minor misdemeanour but littering is a selfish and lazy act which is turning this country into a s**thole. It is even worse since the introduction of the No Smoking ban in public places. Outside the pubs in my town, the pavements are absolutely heaving with filthy fag ends that people have just thrown on the ground. My husband used to smoke but he at least used to knock the lit end off the cigarette when he'd finished and then put the stub in a litter bin, making sure it was fully extinguished first.

Your friend committed an offence and should pay his penalty if he gets one. It might make him think twice in the future before throwing his litter on the ground.

It's not the Council who pays to clean up the mess, or the court fees should someone try to defend their actions in court, it's you, me and every other tax payer and I for one am sick of my council tax going up to clean up after everybody who can't be bothered to clean up after themselves.:mad:

uktim29

maypole wrote: »

He apologised and offered to pick it up but they would not hear of it

Could this have something to do with the fact that they know that if they weren't there he wouldn't have picked it up?

Come on, he only offered to pick it up because he was caught, they know full well he otherwise didn't give a toss.

If your gonna tell me he had nowhere to put it, is the UK a giant ashtray?

MercilessKiller

PasturesNew wrote: »

I didn't know chucking down a cig butt was an offence.

The problem here is that most people see a Cig butt as an object which would be then litter.

If you don't know that dropping ltiter on the street is an offence, then that's a big problem with your morals I believe. If everyone on earth dropped cig buts down several times a day, can you imagine what would happen?

Though this is hypothetical, it should still apply. No one should litter. And the fine is strict liability and there for a reason. There's no defence so just pay up and don't drop litter!

MercilessKiller

Apologies if I sound a bit mean by the way, I just don't see how this is relevant on the consumer "vent" forum. Nothing unfair as happened. The law was broken, a fine was given, end.

uktim29

This reminds me of a story I read in a local paper not to long ago. Basically, this reporter, obviously there wasn't much news that day, spent the day in an Asda car park. He monitored as a journalist with a cameraman etc people who parked in either disabled or parent and child spaces.

He would ask people who obviously were not suppose to park in these places in front of a camera why they did it. Most of them appoligized and offered to move their cars somewhere else.

WHY?

Either stick to your guns and argue why you've done it or don't do it at all. I have no sympathy for people who get caught then offer to correct themselves, they've only done it because someones caught them. This is exactly the same in this case.

RAMBLER

I hate it when I'm walking down the street on a windy day and all the rubbish blows in your face - not very nice.

That being said, being hit with a fine for dropping rubbish is expensive, but can anyone else thing of a solution to stop littering?