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Oh dear : The UK is officially mad

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    Oh dear : The UK is officially mad

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/6058952.stm

    Michael Reeves said the decision to prosecute him was "crazy"

    Magistrates have fined a man £200 after finding him guilty of putting paper in a recycling sack for bottles and cans only - breaking council rules.
    Michael Reeves, 28, a journalist from Swansea, had denied putting an item of junk mail in the bag.

    The court was told the letter, which was addressed to him, "contaminated" the other items put out for recycling.

    After the hearing Mr Reeves said he had since stopped recycling and feared his case would discourage others.

    Magistrates in the city were told under the Environmental Protection Act, councils could impose strict rules on their refuse collection services.

    Mr Reeves was served with a warning notice in April this year when he put his bins out a day early because he was going on holiday.
    Then in June a green recycling bag was found outside his ground floor flat in the Mount Pleasant area of the city containing both paper and bottles and cans.

    Swansea Council enforcement officer Martin Lemon said: "There is a recycling scheme available in which paper can put into a green recycling sack and glass bottles and tins can be put into a separate sack."

    He said if the items were mixed in the same bag then it would be sent to landfill instead as the council's recycling collection team refused to pick it up.

    "The fly-tipping team have responsibility for collecting waste that has been incorrectly disposed of," he said.

    "The teams are trained to search through any offending waste that they have found to look for evidence of its origins.

    "My colleague informed me that he had opened a green recycling sack and that he found a piece of junk mail with Mr Reeve's name and address."

    The sports writer with the city's Evening Post newspaper denied putting the letter in the bag.

    The court heard there were no eye witnesses or camera footage of him doing so.

    His solicitor Nicola Smith said there was "an array" of possibilities of how it came to be in the sack.

    But magistrates found him guilty and fined him £100 and ordered him to pay £100 costs.

    Speaking after Tuesday's hearing he described the case as "crazy".

    "I don't believe they proved beyond reasonable doubt that I put the paper in the bag - I did not," he said.

    He added: "I have not recycled since I received the summons.

    "People are not going to recycle if they end up in court and it costs them £200."

    ---

    Words fail me... being 'served with a warning notice for putting his bin out a day early as he was going on holiday'... for FECKS SAKE!!!! These days you are lucky if the binmen deign to even turn up, let alone walk the extra 3 inches to collect a wheelie bin that was 'not quite close enough to the curb'.

    Thank god for the Fly Tipping Squad. Now, if only we could have them rounding up the half a million illegal immigrants and have them wage The War On Terrror (duh duh duuuuh!!!!) we could all sleep peacefully in our beds...

    Meanwhile, we still have homeless people, mental patients abandoned to their fate without support, suspected terrorists dong a bunk, rapists and murders absconding from open prisons, 450,000 asylum case files accidentally 'found' by the home office...

    But, a guy who tries to recycle his rubbish is hauled up in court and fined.
    Last edited by mcquiggd; 17 October 2006, 21:50.
    Vieze Oude Man

    #2
    If you can't do the time, then don't do the crime...

    Decision seems fair to me: of course putting him to the wall would have been optimal, but I appreciate that this is not Russia.

    Comment


      #3
      Well, as long as they used environmentally friendly bullets, and billed his family.....

      It just astonishes me that there is money wasted on such banality while there are so many more serious problems people are facing.
      Vieze Oude Man

      Comment


        #4
        Technically speaking they are right - they also do not have to prove it beyond reasonable doubt since this is a civil case and on balance of probabilities I think they are right.

        Of course it is waste of court time and council should be dealing with pikey scum hooded chavs.

        Comment


          #5
          I doubt they would have dared if his name had been something like Iqbal Musawi...

          Maybe he should sue them for invasion of privacy - reading his letters.
          Vieze Oude Man

          Comment


            #6
            His name was on the letter itself, all is clean from legal point of view, but from practical POV obviously council should stop wasting taxpayers money.

            Comment


              #7
              No doubt this'll be the council official that goes home every night and complains about how difficult his job is, and how important his job is, and how nobody understands, and how nobody likes him, and then gets 3 months off on fully paid sick leave due to stress.
              Any bets that he's a small man wearing a big suit with lots of 'paperwork' to hide behind. Pathetic !!

              Comment


                #8
                Those who the gods wish to destroy are first made mad.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by AtW
                  His name was on the letter itself, all is clean from legal point of view, but from practical POV obviously council should stop wasting taxpayers money.
                  What was his name, Arlo Guthrie? OK, IGMC.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    We have recycle bins in our rubbish collection points...be fecked how they work it all out because everything gets thrown in with everything!

                    I tell you this country needs another maggie thatcher in charge, who will come in and do to the civil service (and councils) what she did to the mining industry!

                    Mailman

                    Comment

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