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Nice to see the justice system still works


Benyon

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This one is pretty stupid as well although it seems to leave a lot unanswered.

 

Man rummaging on tip is fined for theft

 

A father-of-six from Lancashire saw his car taken away and crushed after he was caught rummaging on a tip.

John McPherson, from Woodfield, Clayton Brook, was delighted at finding a discarded guitar and some speakers – but his joy was short-lived.

 

The 45-year-old was going to give the guitar to his daughter.

But he was charged with theft.

 

Mr McPherson pleaded guilty and was given a one-year conditional discharge and ordered too pay £43 court costs.

 

But he couldn't pay up and the fine spiralled by £20 a day for two weeks – until his car was impounded and crushed.

 

Now, he has blasted the legal system as ridiculous and claims he didn't do anything wrong.

 

"They go on and on about recycling," he said. "So what am I doing wrong? The stuff had already been thrown away.

 

"I wasn't hurting anyone and I didn't break anything. I just found a guitar and some speakers, which I was going to give to my daughter.

"They were only going to get crushed or burned anyway.

 

"I think it is pretty harsh when there are people breaking into people's houses and things like that."

 

In addition to the guitar and speakers, storage boxes and other items were taken from the Sita Waste Disposal centre on Moss Side Industrial Estate, in Leyland, on August 6.

 

Mr McPherson admits taking other items from the tip in the past to sell at car boot sales – but says he can't see why it is illegal.

 

Harold Council, operations manager for SITA UK, said that once rubbish is brought to the tip it belongs to them or the local authority.

He said: "The removal of any items is theft.

 

"All household waste recycling sites are locked when the sites are closed and theft and subsequent damage is a regular problem at a number of the sites we operate in Lancashire.

 

"Electrical items received at our sites are either broken down and recycled or sent for reuse through appropriate charities and other organisations."

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Yeah but buying a bag of weeds contributes to 9/11 happening. HTH

(thats how it works around here right? :innocent:)

 

haha something like that yeah:D

 

@ Animal, The guy sounds like he's not got much money in the first place and now they are fining him, taking more money from him leaving him with more debt with a family to feed. If he wants to risk going through a skip full of crap then why not, This country is trying to persuade people to re-use and recycle then this happens.

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A family member of mine was fined for carrying a knife and it maybe explains why some of the fines are ridiculous...

He was at home drying up some cutlery when there was a knock at the door, he answered it without putting the cultery down and there was a policeman who was investigating a local burglary.

The policeman thought he was going to be attacked by some bloke wielding a carving knife and fork and my relative who had the cutlery in one hand and a tea towel in the other couldn't thought he was about to be battered by the plod for answering the door with offensive washing up.

IIRC he was fined £25.

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A family member of mine was fined for carrying a knife and it maybe explains why some of the fines are ridiculous...

He was at home drying up some cutlery when there was a knock at the door, he answered it without putting the cultery down and there was a policeman who was investigating a local burglary.

The policeman thought he was going to be attacked by some bloke wielding a carving knife and fork and my relative who had the cutlery in one hand and a tea towel in the other couldn't thought he was about to be battered by the plod for answering the door with offensive washing up.

IIRC he was fined £25.

 

That sounds ridiculous too, The copper should be trained enough to know the difference between someone answering the door half way through washing up (as you said he had a tea towel in the other hand) and somoene who is about to stab him. So now you have to answer your door according to the law what bullshit.

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@ Animal, The guy sounds like he's not got much money in the first place and now they are fining him, taking more money from him leaving him with more debt with a family to feed. If he wants to risk going through a skip full of crap then why not, This country is trying to persuade people to re-use and recycle then this happens.

 

Taking something from a skip is theft simply because the items in the skip becomes of the owners of the skip.

 

There a lots of examples where people tried to use the 'its been discarded' card when routing through bins for credit card details etc. The law as it is is designed to stop things like that.

 

As for the guy not having much money, people's ability to pay fines is calculated on their financial situation (they fill in forms) hence why you get people with little money paying tiny fines for the same offence as a millionaire getting fined a large amount.

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A family member of mine was fined for carrying a knife and it maybe explains why some of the fines are ridiculous...

He was at home drying up some cutlery when there was a knock at the door, he answered it without putting the cultery down and there was a policeman who was investigating a local burglary.

The policeman thought he was going to be attacked by some bloke wielding a carving knife and fork and my relative who had the cutlery in one hand and a tea towel in the other couldn't thought he was about to be battered by the plod for answering the door with offensive washing up.

IIRC he was fined £25.

 

Hmm doesn't add up mate really, offensive weapon legislation is possession in a public place. If your family member is in his house, he can't commit the offence.

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