Saturday, 6 March 2010

Your Word Against Someone Superior's

Sadly, this man is, indeed, acting in his own best interest by paying the fine.

Non-smoker fined for dropping cig butt

An ex-Wigan policeman has been fined £50 for dropping a cigarette butt – even though he doesn't smoke.

Vinny Fahey, 50, has now been warned he will be taken to court if he doesn't pay up.

The handyman, who lives with his wife and four children in Astley, is accused of flicking the cigarette butt from the window of his car on Crossbank Road in Urmston in October last year.

Mr Fahey was in Greater Manchester Police for 12 years until retiring in 1997.
Tough titty, Vinny.

The local authority are well ahead of the game. Anyone who has ever appealed one of these cases will have come across the clever ruse which has been imagined to stack the burden of proof on the defendant.

It's the 'credible witness'.

You see, before Labour and their love affair with state-paid officialdom, Vinny's case would throw up all manner of doubt. It's his word against theirs. Plus, he has the added weight of formerly being a trustworthy copper and, err, he doesn't smoke.

However, there is now a new, improved, model of jobsworth. They are given training and a yearly refresher course and thereby deemed legally more important than you.

They say you did it and you're screwed.

Their judgement can no longer be challenged in a court of law. They have a sticky foot from the authority who wish to profit from the fine, and that's that. No conflict of interest there at all, really.

They are superhuman and not prone to mistakes of any kind. Don't it make you proud to be British?

"I do not want to pay this fine but the council have said if I take it to court and lose, it could cost me £2,500 so I may have to pay under duress."
And you will lose because your word is not trusted, whereas some low-paid loser with a uniform and a few ticket-writing lessons utters the gospel according to Saint Easy Money.