Fined for dropping chips

Kyle Russell, 12, had just bought his lunch and was standing at his school gates when the aggressive bird flew down to steal a chip. He dropped the bag in fright, but was spotted by a plain-clothes litter enforcement officer who issued the £50 fine. IT'S CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP DAY! CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE £100 BET... The Glasgow City Council official ignored the tearful schoolboy’s attempts to explain his actions. Now the youngster, who recently received a good behaviour award from teachers, faces the possibility of being referred to the Children’s Panel after furious mum Michelle, 43, refused to pay up.

Mrs Russell, a catering manager at Knightswood Secondary, where her son is a first-year pupil, yesterday attacked the warden’s actions. She said: “My son is not a rule breaker. He knows the importance of not dropping litter, but it was a split-second reaction. “He immediately apologised to the council officer.” Campaign group Big Brother Watch condemned the move and offered to take up the mother’s legal battle. Alex Deane, its director, said: “This could only happen in a target-driven, bureaucratic culture of overpowered jobsworths like ours today.

“The council has acted with no common sense or human feeling and should be ashamed. “It should drop the fine and apologise and the petty warden who issued the fixed penalty notice should be fired.” Last year Big Brother Watch gave legal advice to Vanessa Kelly, 26, from Oldbury, West Midlands, who was fined £75 by a council worker for feeding ducks with her 17-month-old son Harry. She forced the council to back down after an outcry over the petty fine. Glasgow City Council, which has increased plain-clothes patrols outside the school, began enforcing littering fixed penalty notices for under-16s in 2008 as part of a £5million initiative to clean up the city.

It has issued 244 fixed penalty notices to young people between the age of 12 and 16 since February 2008, when the scheme began. Councils have the right to impose fixed penalty notices on anyone over eight years old, the age of criminal responsibility. Anyone issued with the ticket can pay the fine or take part in a clean-up event. But if neither of these options are taken up the child may appear before a Children’s Panel. To date, no youngsters under the age of 16 have been referred for littering. Last night a spokesman for Glasgow City Council said it had not received an appeal against the ticket.