A grieving widow says she was made to feel ‘like a criminal’ after she was fined £300 for leaving her late husband’s clothes outside a Salvation Army collection bin after he died from cancer.
Sophie Scott took the clothes to the charity bin at an Asda car park in Kings Hill, Kent, on Monday October 20.
The bins were ‘completely full’ when she arrived, so she placed the two bin liners of clothes ‘neatly’ beside a collection of other bags.
However, the mother-of-two said after getting into her car she was approached by a council warden who asked her whether she had left the bags.
She told him: ‘Yes, they are for charity, I’ve been donating.’
In response the warden reeled off a list of rules and regulations and told her he was going to fine her for fly-tipping, costing her £300.
A spokesperson for Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council said they understood the incident occurred at a ‘difficult time’ for Mrs Scott, but explained the notice had been issued in line with its ‘standard policy’.
Meanwhile, the company representing the enforcement agent responsible for dishing out the fine said it welcomed dialogue with individuals to provide ‘additional context’.
Sophie Scott was fined £300 after leaving two bags of her late husband’s clothes near the bins when they were full
Mrs Scott insists she hadn’t seen any signs and ‘would never fly-tip’.
The 51-year-old said: ‘I was very distressed because I’m about to have the funeral for my husband, who passed away very recently, so it’s been an incredibly difficult time, and it remains difficult.
‘I was visibly very, very upset and told him that my mind was elsewhere.
‘He did absolutely nothing and said he was filming me and that I needed to take it up with the council.
‘It was very distressing, I simply can’t afford a £300 fine, I have one income now. It’s just awful behaviour, I certainly wasn’t fly-tipping, I was donating to charity, as was everybody else who left bags.’
Mrs Scott lost her husband Simon to an aggressive form of cancer in September, when he was 55 years of age, and had told the warden she was grief-stricken when he fined her.
Despite explaining her situation, the mother said the warden was ‘very unsympathetic’ and said he was filming her straight away which made her feel ‘harassed’.
‘He made me feel like a criminal – and I’m certainly not a criminal,’ she added.
When she arrived, the bins were full, so she placed the two bin liners of clothes on the ground beside lots of other bags
After the ordeal, Mrs Scott rang the council, who she says were sympathetic and offered to freeze the fine whilst they look into it.
It is understood a third-party, Kingdom, is hired by the council to enforce parking and fly-tipping fines.
The business owner went on Facebook to share her ordeal and said hundreds of people came forward saying similar things had happened to them.
She said: ‘It’s really despicable what they are doing, they are blatantly trying to get money out of people and it’s often women who might feel a bit more vulnerable.
‘I want the fine to be ripped up and to have an apology.’
She added: ‘I hope it doesn’t deter people from giving to charity, but I hope this can be made an example for everybody else and the council finally wake up and see what’s actually happening here.’
The council said it was currently in contact with Mrs Scott regarding the fine.
‘The fixed penalty notice was issued in line with our standard policy and the signs displayed at the recycling site’ a spokesperson explained.
‘However, if Mrs Scott feels there are mitigating circumstances she would like Kingdom to consider in her defence, we would encourage her to get in touch with Kingdom.’
Mrs Scott said a council warden came up to her and reeled off a number of rules and regulations to her
A spokesperson for the Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL), the trading arm of the charity, said it was ‘really sorry’ to hear a member of the public was fined when trying to donate items to its clothing bank and explained the charity does not issue or request fines, only the local council does.
They added: ‘Receiving a fine for trying to help a charity is upsetting and frustrating and we do everything we can to avoid that by emptying our banks regularly, often daily. The Kings Hill site is busy and is visited regularly.
‘We don’t want to put people off donating to us as we use the funds generated from selling clothing items to fund our vital work like providing hot meals for rough sleepers or nappies and baby milk for a desperate family.
‘However, if a bank looks like it is full, we ask that people try and save donations for another day.’
The charity explained that clothes often get spoiled when they are left by a bank and that because clothes left on the street or by a bank is considered as fly-tipping the charity often bears the cost ‘which can run to thousands of pounds’.
A Kingdom LAS spokesperson explained it encourages enforcement officers to consider ‘all available evidence at the time of assessment’.
They said: ‘Our enforcement process includes a representation process, during which the case can be fully reviewed.
‘This allows for any further or supporting evidence to be taken into account before a final decision is made.’
Paula (pictured) said she was stopped by a council officer in Northampton town centre and fined for not carrying a waste bag
The spokesperson said officers wear body-worn cameras as part of their standard operating procedure in order to obtain a ‘true record’ of what is said by both the public and its officers, as well as to respond to any complaints accurately.
Kingdom LAS added: ‘We are committed to ensuring that every case is handled fairly and with full consideration of the circumstances.
‘Our approach is designed to be both thorough and proportionate, and we welcome dialogue with individuals who wish to provide additional context.’
In other recent outrageous fines, a dog walker was ordered to pay £100 for walking her Welsh Springer Spaniel without a waste bag, even though her dog had not fouled.
Paula said she was stopped by a council officer in Northampton town centre and despite her dog not fouling on the pavement, she was fined because she had forgotten to bring a plastic bag.
‘She’d already been out for her business that day and it was a very short walk through the town centre so I knew that she wasn’t going to do anything,’ Paula said.
‘Unusually, I didn’t have any in any of my pockets, and so I was unable to say that I had a poo bag with me. So what happened? I was fined on the spot, £100 for a poo she didn’t do.’
She added that she knew it was a legal requirement to clean up mess after dogs, but not any rule about carrying bags.
Burcu Yesilyurt (pictured) was slapped with a £150 fine by council officers after pouring the remnants of her coffee down the drain
‘I honestly thought that I would be giving words of advice, told off, told what the law was so that I knew for next time, but there was no movement,’ she said.
The baffling fine comes after a woman was slapped with a £150 penalty by council officers in Richmond, west London, after pouring the remnants of her coffee down the drain.
Burcu Yesilyurt, from Kew, west London, said she tipped a small amount of the drink from her reusable cup down the road gully because she didn’t want to spill it on the bus.
But moments later, she was ‘shocked’ to see three male enforcement officers ‘chasing’ her down the street as she stood at the bus stop near Richmond station.
The officers fined her £150 under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, reduced to £100 if she paid within 14 days.
Richmond-upon-Thames Council insisted its officers ‘acted professionally and objectively’ and were ‘justified’ in issuing the fine.
The council later said it had cancelled the fine and is ‘reviewing our advice on the disposal of liquids in a public place’.
Also in west London, a woman said she was fined for fly-tipping after an unopened envelope with her name on was found in an alley near her home.
After receiving the council letter, Victoria said she was ‘shaking’ and that she ‘burst into tears’.
She responded to the council letter to say she had never seen the envelope, but she still the £400 to avoid the sum rising to £600.
However, she later had the fine cancelled and refunded after contacting her local councillor.