In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens said “the law is an ass” and over the years the legal system has shown that there was good reason for his comment. Since his day of course things have gone slowly and steadily downhill to the extent that in the UK a woman is being made to stand trial for throwing an apple core onto waste ground.
Kate Badger, a 25 year old from Wolverhampton was accused of throwing an apple core onto “knowingly causing the deposit of controlled waste, namely an apple core, on land which did not have a waste management licence.
Excuse me?? Threw ‘biodegradable’ material onto a waste site? Left to its own devices that apple core would have disintegrated back into the soil in days.
Big Brother seems to have spotted her society shattering lack of discretion and stepped in with a demand she pay a “£60 on-the-spot fine”. She refused… after all, let’s face it here, the entire notion is ludicrous but the law being an ass, got it’s ass into gear and proceeded with a prosecution.
However, in the first place she denies it and after appearing in the local Magistrates Court has elected to stand trial at Crown Court where. if convicted, she faces a prison term.
Personally I would suggest that the entire case has been blown up out of all proportion to the offence whether she did it or not. An apple core is surely in the same category of ‘controlled waste’ for example as a damaged sofa bed… or radioactive material. Is it *so* important the law must be adhered to in all its fine print? Isn’t there a case here for issuing a caution regardless of whether she admits it or not?
And the *cost* of all this must be astronomical… and for what?? So the law can ‘save face’?? Makes no sense at all.
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