Hi,

My mother has just received an FPN for littering. Judging by the dates and location, the offence could only have been disposing of a cigarette butt out of the car window whilst driving. They haven't however given her any details or evidence of her committing the crime, just when and where. I'm not here to deny that it could have been her, or justify it (I hate the fact she smokes anyway, maybe this will prompt her to stop), but if it was a person who saw it rather than it being captured on film:

- it's an offence carried out by a lot of people - are they sure it was her cigarette and not the car in front?

- could have been mistaken in thinking she dropped/was about to drop it if her hand was held near the window?

Can she request what evidence they have before she pays? If she can be shown she did it, then that's of course fair and she won't try and worm her way out of it. But without evidence (such as you get with parking charges, bus lane fines, etc) - well, hopefully you can understand it's frustrating to be made to pay out for something you don't know for sure whether you did.

Thank you for any help.

Curt

The fact that the council officer SAYS he saw it happening is enough, doesnt matter whether it was your mother or someone else, the keeper is liable unless they name someone else as the culprit.

However, I would be asking for some sort of contemporaneous evidence such as notes made at the time about type of vehicle, colour, registration (that is how they contacted her so if the other details are wrong they just misread the plate), time, direction of travel, number of occupants of vehicle and identification characteristics or description of occupants (ie female IC1 driver, male IC3 passenger) and evidence or description of the discarded item of litter (if they say crisp packet and produce a fag end as evidence then something is badly wrong) and evidence that the item was discarded rather than accidentally dropped. This last bit is very subjective but for example you drop a receipt getting you bus pass out of your wallet you are not littering.

She should be honest with herself before appealing this FPN, if she is certain the event didnt occur then go for it big time, if she is looking for a loophole the above may well help her avoid the FPN but if she then lies about the event she will be in bigger trouble