The five-year-old girl had made the lemonade and sale signs with her dad (Picture: PA)

A young girl has been fined £150 after she set up a lemonade stall for people arriving at Lovebox.

The five-year-old drew a sign for her stand in Mile End, East London, while her dad helped her make some homemade lemonade.

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They went to sell it to people making their way to Lovebox for 50p for a small cup and £1 for a large one.

But then four Tower Hamlets council officers approached her – one wearing a bodycam for their safety – and informed her that she could not sell lemonade in the street without a permit.


They read her a legal letter saying she would be fined £150 – reduced to £90 if paid early.

The girl was selling lemonade to people going to Lovebox (Picture: Getty)

Naturally the girl was upset and told her dad ‘I’ve done a bad thing’.

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Following the incident he told her that he would apply for a permit for her but she said it was ‘too scary’.



The council has now cancelled the fine and apologised for what happened.

Writing in the Telegraph he said: ‘After five minutes, the officers’ jobs were done and they went on their way. We packed up and made the short walk home. My daughter sobbed all the way.

‘When my she had finally calmed down, I started to try to make sense of what had just happened.

‘I’m a professor in a business school, so I probably should have known some kind of permit was required. But this was a five-year-old kid selling lemonade. She wasn’t exactly a public safety hazard.’

Tower Hamlets said in a statement: ‘We are very sorry that this has happened. We expect our enforcement officers to show common sense, and to use their powers sensibly. This clearly did not happen.

‘The fine will be cancelled immediately and we will be contacting Professor Spicer and his daughter to apologise.’