You got to laugh - or pull your hair out!

Biggins

From todays The Times (England).

Short version: Sticking to the letter of the law.
Man gets fined for car sticker upside-down, woman convicted for eating an apple (spotter plane was used to convict her!), man gets fined for wiping his nose and another gets fined for dropping a tenner and is said to be littering!

Long version:

“We’re all mad here,” said the Cheshire Cat to Alice.

Unfortunately for the 76-year-old pensioner Peter Knott the madness of Wonderland appeared to have descended on West Bridgford last week. He was fined £35 for displaying his blue disabled driver’s badge upside down.
Mr Knott, who suffers from severe arthritis, had parked his car in a Nottinghamshire council car park, with his blue badge visible in the window.

A spokesperson for Rushcliffe Borough Council said that the warden had acted correctly under the regulations when issuing the ticket. But if there is an expressly worded regulation demanding that a blue badge be placed the right way up, it has not yet been cited by the council.
An online government guide says that a blue badge must be visible and that the information on it must be legible.

The warden could, of course, have moved his neck a little to determine if the badge was valid, but he chose to execute what he said was the letter of the law against Mr Knott for his alleged violation.
Which way up the warden’s common sense was when he issued the ticket is a matter of conjecture.

“The rules are very clear, well-publicised and prominent in the car park: blue badges must be displayed correctly,” a council statement said.
Mr Knott has appealed against the £35 penalty and is awaiting a decision.
Discretion is an important part of the law. In criminal law, for example, just because a crime has been committed does not mean that it must be prosecuted.

Speaking in the House of Commons in 1951, the Attorney-General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, said: “It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be – that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution.”

The law, though, has experienced some particularly zealous prosecutions.
In 2005 Sarah McCaffery, 23, a nursery nurse from Northumbria, was convicted, fined £60 and ordered to pay £100 costs after she drove round a bend in second gear, with an apple in her hand. Convicting her took ten court hearings, in which prosecutors used photographic evidence from a spotter plane.

The golden award for zealotry, however, must go to PC Stuart Gray.
In 2010 Michael Mancini, a furniture restorer, was stationary in traffic in Ayr High Street, Scotland. His van was in neutral and his handbrake was on. He took out a tissue to wipe his nose and was then signalled into a parking bay by PC Gray.

Mr Mancini said matters turned “a little bit surreal” when he wound down his window and was immediately charged by a stern-faced Gray with failing to be in control of his vehicle.
“I said ‘You’ve got to be kidding?’ but he was absolutely deadpan,” recounted Mr Mancini. For stationary nose-wiping, he was fined £60 and had his driving licence endorsed with three points.
PC Gray’s fervour, though, has gone even further.

Stuart Smith was walking down Newmarket Street in Ayr in 2009. He was unemployed and living on £49 a week. He accidentally dropped a £10 note from his pocket on to the pavement.
He thanked PC Gray profusely when the officer spotted the note on the pavement and handed it back. But Mr Smith was then flabbergasted when the officer charged him with littering, and issued him with a £50 penalty.
In his police force PC Gray is nicknamed “Shiny Buttons” because of his keen attention to detail. That is not, though, how he is referred to by some of the people he passes on his beat.

Anyone else got some strange tales to tell of others sticking to the letter of the law?
...And ye ended up paying for it?

orourkeda

The law is an ass

Chuck Stone

A$sholes gonna a$shole.

HazDanz

What a power tripping f*ck!

no1beemerfan

orourkeda wrote: »

The law is an ass

I had to deal with it today and I can second that strongly!

Where To

PC Gray sounds like a barrel of laughs

Biggins

where do i go from here wrote: »

PC Gray sounds like a barrel of laughs

He does, don't he!
The poor suffering wife! (If he has one) :pac:

orourkeda

where do i go from here wrote: »

PC Gray sounds like a barrel of laughs

I'd love to party with him.

EL_Loco

police state full of jobsworths I tells ya. They love their rules and regulations.

Seachmall

orourkeda wrote: »

I'd love to party with him.

Noise pollution - £150
Drunk and Disorderly - £350
Spiking his drink with viagra - Priceless

Chuck Stone

Seachmall wrote: »

Noise pollution - £150
Drunk and Disorderly - £350
Spiking his drink with viagra - Priceless

He probably had his penis removed because it was inconvienient.

Bored cretin.

Sinfonia

*shudder*

Such utter ****. I rarely get angry about...things, but it really annoys me that time is spent on such minor prosecutions (ten court hearings over a £60 fine for the apple woman), when victims of criminal activity (theft, burglary for example) are so often told that there's nothing that can be done. Sort it the **** out.

Noreen1

Biggins wrote: »

He does, don't he!
The poor suffering wife! (If he has one) :pac:

Nah...
He's bound to have found something to charge his girlfriends with.
Way to end a relationship, methinks.:D:D

the culture of deference

Reminds me of Trigger happy tv and the parking attendant wanting to ticket people stopped in traffic.

http://ivideo.ie/viewVideo.php?video_id=8290