Non-smoker fined for dropping cig buttTough titty, Vinny.
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.
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.
7 comments:
Good own goal by the zelots again.
So people still think purile anti littering laws are a good idea ?
from the same council that claims mistakes can't happen...
http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Councillor-horrified-by-mileage-mixup.6128457.jp
And there's a Copper in Harlow who boosts his figures by lying that certain younger motorists were not wearing a seat belt.
What's exasperating about all this twattery is that we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
I've become convinced that there's an editorial policy *not to report* the zealots and municipal bullies in a swath of local press titles - particularly Newsquest Group.
I have compared notes with folk in different parts of the country served by titles from this group and a familiar pattern of strategic omission and sucking up council PR emerges.
One could put it down to the illiterate lazy dunces employed to gather the stories some anecdotal evidence from people employed in the production side points to this being a factor but also apparently stories are routinely spiked about serious council misdeeds.
A reporter on my local paper was fired for selling a council fraud story to a national that'd been spiked by his ed....
Five fully armed coppers with loaded pistols at a time seem permanently posted to roam the San Francisco subway stations and appear in mass force, all five together at all incidences, to bark orders to all subway riders before leaving the stations upon arrival to present paper evidence by way of subway pass or transfer slip of having paid the fare, or face immediate $250 fine on the spot.
Now one should pay the subway fare and not sneak through the turnstiles and a fine should be operative as there always has been.
But why five fully armed coppers on a wild exercise of authority and show of force to greet all the people arriving each morning downtown - and you never know which station they will appear at next - while up on the streets chaos breaks out at the drop of a pin by way of really violent and abhorrent criminal activity - that left to continue by way of bodily harm and property damage inflicted - while the coppers are instead one level below, hassling commuters.
Add to that the rabid outdoor smoking ban signs which are huge and state quite clearly it will be a $500 fine alongside the gold-plated outdoor smoking ban signs beginning to show up recently, then the ever so often buzz of police helicopters that swarm overhead and usually during evening commute hours so that the awareness of their presence is felt by the largest number of people and then the every Tuesday at 12 o'clock noon blasting of the air-raid warning siren city-wide using a new highly expensive system that was just set up to infiltrate every square foot of space in the city, to be followed by an announcement over the bullhorns that "this is only a test, but had this been a real warning, instructions would be given" - and it makes you wonder what is going on - in plain view - but maybe unnoticed by the majority of the daily public who take it in stride - as "normal".
It seems the bully state is alive and well in other parts of the world too, not just in yours.
But the surprising thing is the reaction of subway riders who now feel it quite normal in every definition of the world normal. It's the normalization of extreme shows of force by the government - and people have become accepting of it.
It's only going to get worse and is beginning to feel how Germany must have felt prior to the rise of the Third Reich, how it crept in slowly, then started to feel normal, like it's always been that way and always should be.
It's that show of force, that ring of government is right, even when it is wrong, that is being normalized and accepted as how it should be, that is alarming to me.
When they first came in I noted that the word of these plastic plod would be presumed to be The Truth against whatever defence the accused might have. This is odd because it gives their voice more weight than that of a serving Police Officer (wno is just another voice, equal to any other) in a Court of Law.
The draconian enhanced fine and costs threatened by defending oneself is, of course, designed to force the innocent to incriminate themselves and pay up for a quiet life.
You either give in which results in these jobworths and councils issuing tickets carte blanche or you fight it.
Take note that your initial appeal will always be rejected no matter what. This is a fact. They will then issue another demand ... with menaces. This means they will say that if it goes to court it 'could' cost you £1000, £2000 or whatever. This a a cold calculated move to make you afraid of going to court and pay the fine. Call their bluff and go to court. lf you aren't up to it and feel intimidated then take someone with you who won't be. You are allowed to do this. Do your homework and present your defence.
l choose to fight by any means necessary and take preventative action. Your vehicle is the main source of identifying you so make it more difficult. Registered keepers do not have to be the owners so use the option where you can. Also it is well known that cloning of number plates is common.
Case of speeding ticket issued against our vehicle. Initially we appealed and it was rejected. We recieved the usual menaces demand but went to court. They had photos of vehicle doing 38 in a 30 limit on a certain date. We presented evidence that vehicle was in airport car park at time of alleged offence. Prosecution said that the photo shows our vehicle. we said 'no' , it shows a vehicle with same registration number ... not same vehicle and showed photos of our vehicle which had sticker on back and different style number plates. We won.
Fight back where you can.
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