Toddler fined for dropping two potato chips

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Toddler fined for dropping two potato chips

UK Daily Mail | May 17, 2007

A woman was handed an £80 litter fine after her toddler grandchild dropped some crisps on the pavement.

Barbara Jubb had picked up the packet of Quavers when it fell from the hand of 20-month- old Emily.

But she failed to pick up two stray crisps that spilled from the bag.

Within seconds two council litter wardens swooped and issued her with an £80 fine.

"This is diabolical," said Mrs Jubb, 57. "£80 is a lot of money, especially if it's just because a baby dropped two Quavers.

"I saw these two women coming toward me with clipboards. One of them produced a card and said, 'We are from the council and I'm going to fine you for littering'.

"I said, 'What litter - it's just two Quavers, it was my granddaughter, she dropped them'."

"People were standing around listening-they were just laughing, they couldn't believe it was happening."

The incident happened when Mrs Jubb was waiting for a bus with her daughter Selena, Emily's mother.

They were on their way back to their home in Crawley, West Sussex, after a hospital visit in which Selena was diagnosed with a heart condition.

Mrs Jubb added: "It was only when I got on the bus that I read the notice and realised they had fined me £80."

Selena, 29, said: 'At first we didn't realise we had been fined. These two wardens had come up to us and given us a notice.

"When I read it on the bus I realised my mum had been given an £80 fine. Luckily Emily didn't have a clue what was going on. I think they are targeting vulnerable people."

A spokesman for Crawley Council said: "People leaving their rubbish behind - or dropping litter anywhere other than a bin - is totally unacceptable.

"It annoys responsible residents who help us to keep the town clean and tidy and the council will not tolerate unsociable behaviour."

The council did however allow Mrs Jubb's appeal against the fine, saying the penalty would be waived because of the 'exceptional circumstances'.

These people are nasty pieces of work who set out to cause grief to ordinary people. If these people needed their assistance they'd be the type to walk away from them. This kind uses the little power they have over someone to make their lives that little bit more miserable. As I said: scum.

well if it's in the Mail it must be true

What would it need to be in to make it true then? The official Labour Party newsletter?

We could always pelt meat pies and chips at them!

I feed the birds all the time when I'm done eating my morning muffin in the car. I guess I should watch my back on that lol.

Wow, I thought California was filled with crazy people! My response to the situation would have been as follows: 1) A polite but firm, "What!?" 2) A politely delivered vulgarity, and 3) a shouting match that would require a constable to step in. Hasn't anyone in Crawley ever heard of birds? I hear they LOVE carbohydrate-type foods that careless children leave on the ground!

All things like this are treated as litter, even if it's perfectly healthy and gets eaten. Complete madness, I know.

It was a toddler, for crying out loud. They don't neccessarily know dropping litter is wrong. The mother should have been given a warning at most...

Yeah, to be honest.
If it was a grown man, it would be one thing.
But a Toddler, DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!
The Toddler has no idea what it's doing!

£80 quid for two quavers? Is that £40 per quaver then? Interesting that its the same fine for:

Wasting police time or giving false report, (S5(2), Criminal Law Act 1967)

Knowingly giving a false alarm to a fire brigade, (S31, Fire Services Act 1947)

Using threatening words or behaviour likely to cause alarm, harassment or distress under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

What is more disturbing is that TWO QUAVERS WORTH OF LITTER FINE , ( a highly toxic risk to the environment, potato based cheese snacks being the most environmentally unfriendly of all wheat snacks, increasing your carbon footprint by exactly NOTHING, and causing up to and including NO de - forestation ) will pay for:

Being drunk in a highway, other public place or licensed premises, (S12, Licensing Act 1872) £40 pounds. Disorderly behaviour while drunk in a public place, (S91, Criminal Justice Act 1967 ) (Yes, that covers being a drunken tosser who makes town centres a no - go zone for the public most saturday nights.)

Throwing fireworks in a thoroughfare, S80, Explosives Act 1875 £40 again (throwing a small BOMB...)

Throwing stones, etc. at trains or other things on railways, (S56, British Transport Commission Act 1949) £40 (... at a TRAIN.)

Better yet... maybe the woman in question should go shoplifting? She could heist up to £199.99 of goods, sell them on to cover the £80 Quaver fine, and if she gets busted.. hell.. its only an £80 quid fine for that. On a tangent to that.. under-16s are only fined £40 for shoplifting, so surely as a minor was involved in this highly illegal and dangerous Quavering, she should only have been fined £40?

Bear this in mind next time you irresponsibly scatter 100% bio-degradable edible materials that will dissolve completely on contact with liquid of almost any kind, that are completely 100% edible to almost all forms of life. (Except probably parrots, who are allergic to some really stupid things, like asparagus.)

They probably had to do that before some stupid idiot sued them.


But they're still stupid idiots.

Let them do their jobs were I live. Within three hours, they would quit on grounds of mental distress.