Amazing to think that fines for wheelie bin offences are now higher than those for shoplifting or being drunk and disorderly.
What’s more, failure to pay an on-the-spot fines (up to 110 pounds) for overfilling bins, leaving them out too early, or putting out sacks of ‘side waste’ alongside will lead to a prosecution and a criminal record. Most shoplifting fines (around 80 pounds), however, apparently go unpaid and, even if the fine is paid, no criminal record is registered.
Matters are not made easy for householders, far from it, as bin sizes shrink and daily or weekly rubbish collection becomes a thing of the past.
Many people claim that the on-the-spot fines for shoplifting are merely a way of avoiding paperwork and an easy way to achieve crime clear-up targets.
Last year there were 193,000 on-the-spot fines for shoplifting and disorder and 44,000 for littering offences.