Fixed Penalty Notice

Hi I have recently been served with a fixed penalty notice for 'littering'. To be exact I threw a cigarette butt down an open drain as I was running to get into a taxi at a taxi stand in Newcastle upon Tyne. It turns out the city council have hit on a great new scam, which involves targeting taxi ranks and busy bus stops and where these are available using CCTV cameras to watch their citizens every move. If anyone even remotely steps out of line, they pounce on them and demand money from them. They are particularly targeting smokers, as although it isn't (yet) illegal to smoke in public, the council know only too well that smokers will often light up while waiting to catch a bus or a taxi to whatever destination they may want to go to, and that they therefore represent an easy and highly reliable income stream for the city coffers.

In my own case, I was smoking in a zone that did not display any no smoking signs (I have since been back and have checked). It was just as I was about to take off in my taxi that these two huge guys banged on my window and asked me to step out. Since they both looked like plain clothed cops I complied. It was then that they said I had been spotted 'littering' and that they wanted to speak to me. I specifically asked them who they were, and was simply told to 'shut up!' and that it was them who were doing the taking now. I tried to explain that I was in a rush to get to an interview, but was again told to 'shut up and that if I didn't shut up, that they would put me under caution'. I was not allowed to speak, ask who they were, or question their authority for what they were doing. They behaved like complete cowboys, assuming total authority to say and do whatever they wanted. They were openly physically intimidating and verbally aggressive and used the threat that if I didn't accept the notice they would take me to court, knowing full well that the majority of ordinary decent people (my self included) have never seen the inside of a court in their lives and that they would find this prospect utterly terrifying.

The council therefore are running the perfect scam. They are targeting smokers, because they know they make easy pickings, they are using large physically and verbally intimidating men, who make themselves even more intimidating by refusing to identify themselves. They use 'threats' to take people to court, even though the vast majority of ordinary law abiding citizens would find this prospect utterly terrifying - and would clearly (if they can afford to) rather pay to avoid this happening.

So my question is, where these guys right to withhold ID? I asked the council about it, and of course the guys in question who gave me the notice simply denied that they had offered no ID and in any case the council just said that the fixed penalty notice on it's own should have been sufficient proof of ID - even though I didn't get this for some 10 minutes until the process was complete.

Also if I must pay, does anyone have any useful suggestions on ways I can pay that will make this exercise unprofitable for the council? I considered paying the full £75 in loose pennies, but some councils have began refusing to accept this as a payment method, since pennies are only legal tender up to a maximum of 20p.

Here is the definition of legal tender here: http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/policies-and-guidelines/legal-tender-guidelines

I could still do a mix of coins up to the value of £75 that matches this exact definition, which would still take a little while to count. Also another method (which I very much like), was covering all the coins in jam or marmalade, and putting it in a zip bag and sending it to the council in a zipped clear plastic wallet, with a letter explaining that I am so broke (which is true) that I had no option than to use money I had been saving in jam jars for a while to pay the penalty and that unfortunately it seemed I had forgotten to empty all the jam out of the jar first.

Legally speaking they have no grounds to refuse this method of payment, since the money I send will match the legal definition of legal tender exactly. The only way they could refuse it would be if they had reasonable suspicion that the money was covered in a noxious substance (which marmalade/jam isn't), or if any of the money had been physically defaced. (Which it won't be.) What this means is that they may have to wash each coin individually by hand before counting it. (Preferably with a toothbrush!)

Another method I thought of was paying in 75 x £1 cheques, as as far as I understand it, these can take much more time and effort to process. But as technically I am not allowed to pay in instalments (even though all the cheques would have the same date on them) I'm not all that sure about this one.

In any case I would welcome any help and any suggestions anyone might have. How do citizens fight back under these conditions, or are we expected to just bend over and take it up the bum?