Earlier this year, a man in Germany received a 900 euro ($1,059) fine for allegedly dishonoring a female police officer by farting in front of her. Unsurprisingly, upon appeal, the judge immediately dismissed the absurd charge against him.

Specifically, several weeks ago, a man later identified as Christopher S. appeared in court several weeks ago to fight a nearly $1,100 ticket that he was given while hanging out with a group of friends in the Friedrichshain neighborhood of Berlin over a year ago. According to reports, he received the fine for letting out two loud farts near a female police officer, who approached him and asked to see some identification.

Her male colleague, who was absolutely outraged, later filed a complaint against Christopher for his stinky conduct. In the report, Christopher was accused of “injuring the honor” of his partner. A year later, Christopher was informed about the complaint against him and ordered to pay the hefty fine.

Filled with righteous indignation, Christopher decided to appeal the fine. In court, his lawyer reportedly told the judge, “it is one thing if the leader of a police unit sees his colleague’s honor as being injured by a fart. But it is quite another if prosecutors and the judiciary agree – that is a failure of the state.”

Fortunately, the judge didn’t need much convincing. Within minutes, he ruled in favor of Christopher and threw out the complaint against him.

However, despite the fact that the complaint was ultimately thrown out, some, like Sebastian Schlüsselburg, were upset that taxpayer dollars were wasted on such a frivolous citation. Upon hearing about the case, Schlüsselburg, who is a German politician representing the Left Party in the House of Representatives of Berlin, filed an inquiry to the Senate asking about the staffing costs of the case.

In response to his request for more information, Martina Gerlach, the Secretary of State for Justice and Consumer Protection, informed him that the total processing time was 17 hours and 13 minutes and that in total, 23 police officers were involved in the case. Schlüsselburg’s office then calculated that based on this information, Christopher’s fart has cost taxpayers more than $100. Although this may seem like a small amount, the money could have gone towards helping take care of the city’s more pressing issues.

“The response of the Senate administration shows that considerable personnel resources have been wasted here for the prosecution of nullity,” argued Schlüsselburg upon learning of the cost to the taxpayer. “[The Left Party] provides for a strong reinforcement of the prosecutor’s office, the police, and the judiciary. These resources should be used to solve real security problems.”

Sadly in Europe, where the government is much more authoritarian and the officers enforcing the laws are much less reasonable, frivolous citations are not uncommon. For example, earlier this year, a 5-year-old girl in London was fined approximately $200 for selling lemonade in a park without a permit. Following what the girl described as a “scary” experience, her father, Andre Spicer, who was with her at the time, wrote an article explaining what happened and published it online.

Understandably, many people were outraged by the way Spicer’s child was treated. Several businesses even offered to let her sell lemonade on their property. One of those businesses was London’s Borough Market, which reached out to Spicer on Twitter. “Would your daughter like to sell some lemonade at Borough Market?” they asked, noting, “we’d love to make that happen for her.”

Due to the massive amount of pushback city officials received, they decided to cancel the fine. “We are very sorry that this has happened,” stated a spokesman for the town, noting “We expect our enforcement officers to show common sense, and to use their powers sensibly. This clearly did not happen. The fine will be canceled immediately and we have contacted Professor Spicer and his daughter to apologize.”

Law enforcement officials must not be allowed to waste taxpayer dollars pursuing ridiculous lawsuits. To stop this from happening, conservatives in Europe need to work together and push for reform.