Denetta Copeland should have got a 50 pounds fixed penalty notice through the post but a bureaucratic bungle saw this sent to the wrong address and meant she was prosecuted eight months afterwards.
The mum-of-three, who suffers from the degenerative disease multiple sclerosis, was accused of dropping the peel out of her car while driving in Leeds, West Yorkshire on May 23 last year by a council enforcement officer who took her registration number.
Baffled Denetta told Leeds Magistrates she had no recollection of dropping the peel and added her memory was affected by her condition. But she pleaded guilty to littering because she could not say she didn't drop it.
As prosecutors accepted she had never received the fixed penalty nor the initial summons they waived costs of £367.89 and asked for a littering fine to be imposed. Miss Copeland was fined £35 and ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge at £5 a week.
She said: ""You have to laugh otherwise you'd cry. I don't lead a criminal life and have struggled to bring up three kids. Don't the council have better things to do than take people to court for dropping orange peel which would have just rotted away."
No comments:
Post a Comment