Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

A GREAT-grandmother has been electronically tagged, placed under curfew and fined 1,000 for selling a GOLDFISH to a 14-year-old boy.

Scales of justice: Joan Higgins was prosecuted after 20,000 council sting operation.



Pet shop owner Joan Higgins, 66, landed the punishment after mistakenly selling the tiny fish to a schoolboy.

The pensioner failed to spot that the lad was under the age of 16 as required by law to buy a pet and fell foul of a sting by trading standards officers.

Married mum-of-two Mrs Higgins, who has run a pet shop for more than 28 years and never been in trouble before, was hauled before the courts and left distraught by the triple-whammy sentence.

The 6pm to 7am curfew means she won't be able to babysit her great grandson, go to bingo, or attend a Rod Stewart concert her nephew - TV actor Will Mellor - bought her as a treat.

Mrs Higgins slammed the court ruling, saying: "It's just ridiculous. I honestly can't believe what's happened. I don't think the punishment fits the crime. I thought tags were for people who did naughty things at night not great grandmothers.

"I've made an error of judgment and was happy to pay a fine but this just all seems over the top.

"The boy I sold the goldfish to looked over 16 but now I ask for ID every time. I get kids coming in the shop all the time in the summer with fish they've won from the fair but it seems to be one rule for them and one for me. I'm devastated at missing Rod Stewart - I've been waiting years to see him and now I'm going to miss it."

Joan's son Mark today labelled the 20,000 prosecution a "judicial joke".

Mr Higgins, 47, said: "I think it's a farce and legal lunacy and I told the council that. What gets me so cross is that they put my Mum on a tag she's nearly 70, for goodness sake. They told her they would come and fit the tag last night so she missed her regular bingo night with her sister waiting for them to turn up, but they didn't come. But once it's fitted she'll be on a curfew from 7pm until 7am until June.

"She won't be able to go out with her sister to Bingo every week, and she's been bought tickets to see Rod Stewart so she won't be able to go to that. She's a great grandma - so she won't be able to babysit a new born baby, all because of this tag. You would think they have better things to do with their time and money.

"Mum has been running the shop for 28 years and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened. My argument was that people selling tobacco or alcohol to under age customers get two warnings before they get taken to court. We didn't get that. The system is a judicial joke."

Mrs Higgins who runs Majors Pet Shop in Sale, Greater Manchester, with her son, was brought to court by Trafford Council after breaching the 2006 Animal Welfare Act which bans children under 16 from buying pets unless accompanied by an adult.

The offence took place in July last year and Mrs Higgins spent eight months with the threat of jail hanging over her before being hauled before Trafford Magistrates Court on Monday.

The grandmother-of-three, who also carries out charity work for the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals, pleaded guilty to selling the fish to a person under 16.

She was also fined for causing unnecessary suffering to a cockatiel bird which had a broken leg and required the care of a vet.

Mr Higgins was also fined 750 and ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work. His mother was tagged because she was deemed unfit to complete voluntary work.

The court's decision was last night slammed by politicians and "Big Brother" watchdogs.

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, added: "The judge should be ashamed. There is simply no justification for putting an electronic tag and a night-time curfew on a 66 year-old woman for this non-crime. There are many better ways of sorting out bad pet shops than lengthy prosecutions that waste time and taxpayers' money. This decision criminalises someone who has never committed an offence before, yet serial offenders seem to get away with dozens of crimes before being punished so severely."

A spokesman for Trafford Council defended the decision to bring the case.

Iain Veitch, Head of Public Protection, said: "The evidence presented for this conviction clearly demonstrates that it is irresponsible to sell animals to those who are not old enough to look after them. We have many responsible pet shops in the borough who provide adequate advice and care for animals however let this conviction send out a message that we will not tolerate those who cause unnecessary suffering to animals.

"The council will always try to support pet and business owners so that they are able to care for their animals properly, but where they continually ignore the advice they are given, we will not hesitate to use our statutory powers."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2913939/Great-gran-is-tagged-for-selling-a-goldfish-The-madness-of-Broken-Britain.html#ixzz0jnGF21tQ

So she should be tagged ,, they should have fined her 20k and confiscated her shop,,

then Britain could better afford to support the radical muslims with their 4 wives and expensive houses paid for by the state or the Romanian Woman who lives in west London on millionaires row with her 7 kids ,,, its why i moved and hate what Britain has become ,,i know it may be too late to change it but please please please get Labour out ..

There's a bit more to the tagged great-granny story - but not much. Seems the council were concerned that she'd mistreated a cockatiel or summat. Waste of resources that could have been better employed clamping disabled pensioners' cars parked on double yellow lines.

One day middle England will rise up in outrage.

Mighty ,,, those bloody pensioners ,,,my mum (who's 80) just got fined for putting 2 wheels on the kerb in a country village ,if you could see where it was it made sense ..
I told her on the phone , Mum you should be in Belmarsh !! Those Krays they have nothing on her..

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Namrehlet me know if you ever write a bookI want to order the first copy

Luckily I dont go to workand only ever wear plain black socks.they do however have left and right embroidered on the heels

Scales of justice: Joan Higgins was prosecuted after 20,000 council sting operation.

A petty fine, tagging and a curfew, pathetic, once again it shows how soft we are on crime and punishment.
This case will have no deterrent effect whatsoever.

Why are people feeling more empathy with this person just because she is an OAP and Grandmother, surely she is old enough to know better.

She should have been taken straight out of her pet shop, publicly flogged, hung drawn and quartered, with her head then impaled on a spike.

I guarantee, there would be no further heinous crimes of his nature.

NOTE.... On tracing my family tree back to the 1600's, I found I am related (would you believe) to "Witch-finder General" Matthew Hopkins.
Now he knew a thing about crime deterrent. You don't see any 'Witches' now days do you.

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I don't give a shit. I have one pair of socks with 'Ls' on and another with 'Rs' on. Well, I do actually. Both pairs happen to be the same colour.

And parking on the path, you say?

Hmmm?

Everyone does it round here. Wifey is on the PC. They meet every two months and she brought this up at the last meeting. Neither the police or the community officers, who generally attend, say they care about it. Neither are they bothered about kids riding bikes on the pavement. They say that each of these 'actually illegal offences' really do keep accidents down.

In fact, I have even seen the community police riding on the pavement in our local area.

The main thing the police had to say about parking partly on the pavement, was that, providing there is a gap left so that you can get a push chair or a wheel chair down the side of the car, it's OK with them.

Cyclist on pavements, cars parked on pavements.
Once again it comes down to common sense, a commodity sadly lacking in todays Police Force.
I never contemplated taking action in many areas, as long as they (cars) were not as already said, stopping people from getting past. Cyclist as long as they were being considerate and not doing so in busy pedestrian areas, or/and cycling slowly.

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mnamreh

Only in very cold weather or perhaps the odd long haul flight.

Ssshhh. You are making me blush, you. Oooh you are a one!

;-)

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So the rail strike has been called off, I wonder who will claim the credit for that.
2517

That would be the High Court :-)

Glad that you are still alive Hilary. Thought that you had drowned or crashed into a tree on some ski slope! Are you sticking to forex these days?

Manure... An interesting fact

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas of course. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the instruction 'Stow high in transit' on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term 'S.H.I.T', (Stow High In Transit) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word. You probably thought it was another name for The Guardian!

HO Ho HO!

Although not according to Snopes... http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/shit.asp