Man’s Shame At Criminal Record For Leaving Bin Ajar
“HOW did you get your criminal record, dad?” asks the little wide-eyed lad with the dilated pupils.
Most dads will regale their boy with the tale of smashing up the precinct, urinating through a letter box or robbing a bank for its pens, or any other valuables left in it.
Nothing so easy for honest Gareth Corkhill, of Whitehaven, Cumbria. In “GIVEN A CRIMINAL RECORD FOR THIS”, the Mail’s front page tells of how Mr Corkhill was given a criminal record for overfilling his rubbish bin.
Such shame on his young family. He is a dad to four.
The bin lid is four-inches ajar, says the paper. And that will not do. Mr Corkhill is visited by the enforcement officers, pair of. He is cautioned. He is ordered to pay a £110 on-the-spot fine. He refuses. To court the case does go.
In his absence the plaintiff is ordered to pay £210, made up of the original bill, £100 prosecution costs plus a £15 surcharge to help victims of violence.
“In “I’VE BIN HAD” the Sun hears Mr Corkhill threatened with jail if the fine is not paid. It’s the Mirror’s “Rubbish fine”.
In the Express, the bin-martyr tells how his car would be clamped and bailiffs dispatched.
In all this, there remains one matter of discrepancy. Just how open was the bin lid?
Mr Corkhill maintains an opening of 4 inches. Copeland borough council counters with seven inches. The Telegraph hears the same council says it was “more like six”.
How big the gap may shape a family. What young Cockhill will not blush at the mention of a mere four inches?
Can’t we make it ten inches or even eleven, and in so doing enable Mr Cockhill’s child to hold his head up high?
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Oh, how local authorities in the UK show their stupidity by hounding and fining people who have simply put too much garbage in a bin.Bloody-minded attitudes that treat the general public with arrogance and contempt.
In Brazil, the guys who collect the garbage can be seen making collections three times a week,and, after picking up the plastic bags from outside the houses or off a tree where it was placed away from stray dogs they then dump it quickly on the garbage truck.No fuss whatsoever. Gareth Corkill howver, had to pay a fine of over 200 quid and also get a criminal record.
When people here find out that you need a TV licence to watch the box (or you get into trouble too)they are astonishedby this information.
Local authorities and government bully and threaten ordinary citizens,and yet,serious criminals get a tap on the wrist very often and home-made terrorists who shout hatred against Britain every time they open their mouths are protected under their human rights; and live on social security while doing it.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
petty bureaucracy gone mad….
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Imagine they are a family of 6, so why does the LA provide only one bin? FFS!
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
This is the sort of madness that will one day lead to civil unrest. I live in Spain and the first people pushed off the cliff in the civil war were the lawyers, magistrates and petty beaurocrats and officialdom.
One can see why.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Whatever we think of the Council, if he had paid-up he wouldn’t have had to go to court, wouldn’t have had to pay double and wouldn’t have a police record (well maybe Ghost in the Machine!).
The moral of the story is surely only to fight the battles that you can win.
And he looks far too young to have 4 kids.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
PS….John Blake is quite wrong. In Brazil - or at least in Sao Paulo - the rubbish is collected daily!
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 am
Hi Rick,
garbage collections can vary but where I’m based in Brazil(Which isn’t Sao Paulo) you can expected three collections a week.The guys picking up the trash run like hell to keep up with the truck.
In a massive city like Sao Paulo there is a neccessity for garbage collections more often
to prevent it from piling up.
Regards,
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:54 am
5
Rick Worth Says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Whatever we think of the Council, if he had paid-up he wouldn’t have had to go to court
———————
and if he’d fly tipped it all outside the council offices he would have been fined £80
what a great incentive to stop fly-tipping.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 am
and by rick’s thinking, whatever we thought of hitler, if we’d just lied down and let him walk over us there’d have been no need for the battle of britain either.
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Errr…..firestar…..we won the Battle of Britain and beat Hitler.
What part of “only fight the battles that you can win” did you fail to grasp?