Pet Shop Owner Charged For Selling Gold Fish...

St-Patrick, he was joking. (I hope )

Your video shows youthful stupidity if anything, but dont tell PETA I said that!

Sad days in the U.K. when you have to have the cops send in children to entice grannies to commit a crime.

I feel a quote from Roger The Shrubber is in order here, as it makes as much sense as this law and the people enforcing it.

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history.

Crikey, what a load of nonsense. I can't believe there is even a law like this and to enforce it this way is even more insane.

I could not believe this when I read it ... it's not April Fool's yet is it?

This is just one more reason why I will never consider emigrating to the UK, even if the SHTF here in SA.

Hell I would rather head off to Mozambique, Botswana or Namibia.

reply to post by felonius


Socialists? Seriously?

Oh, right, you don't know what socialism is.

"Zero tolerance" policies tend to be a factor of fascist totalitarianism. In socialist totalitarianism, they don't bother telling you what you did, you just get chucked in a van and carted out to Siberia (or Manchester, as the case may be)

This is stupid! How else on Earth will these kids learn the value of a buck if they can't spend that buck? I have lost thousands of dollars over stupid things but that is the best way to learn. Through experience, you better your life.

WTF, that highly dangerous granny is still on the loose. Send in the SWAT Team, because we all know selling goldfish to kids, is but the first step to hard core terrorism on the scale that makes 911, look like sandcastles being kicked over at the beach.

[edit on 31-3-2010 by acrux]

reply to post by acrux


First they start on the goldfish. Then they move on to the angelfish and tetras. before you know it they're hooked and setting up Rift Valley cichlid biota aquariums in the garage!

I want to know who in trading standards authorised and signed of the funding for the operation.

This was pre planned obviously, probably cost in total about £10,000 with police costs, operational costs, court costs etc, tagging.

That is TAX payers money not some power freak in trading standards.

If trading standards did their job properly, and had done this to a shop selling alcohol or tabacco, fair enough, if they had "Stings" and set up meetings between Doctors and Phrama Reps, to show what really goes on there with Prescription medicine, Fair Enough.

If they went to most food outlets and stopped them from pumping our children with Chemicals Additives etc, or looked into companies that make their workers do unpaid overtime like most do about 20 hours a week, slavery, fair enough, as the job they advertised is false.

If they went to supermarkets and ensured that food was labbelled correctly, and took away Nutrasweet or the ones advertised as "Natural Sweeteners" when they are not natural, fair enough.

This has made me soo upset for the poor person, and the confusion it will probably cause to the child who was used in the "Sting".

I have emailed my MP, written to trading standards, the local Crown Prosecution Service, for the area of the case etc.

I have asked my MP to raise this in parliment and if not I want a written reply why they dont think wasting tax payers money, in todays troubled times, is an important enough issue these days to raise in Parliment. Which I have assured them will be scanned and put online in the "most widely read alternative news site in the world!" .

I also have put in an FOI request to the Crown Prosecution Service for the costing, admin and lawyers the Police use to allow this to get an Magistrates date.

In addition I have contacted by letter the Local Magistrates Board questioning the ability of the Magistrate to be able to sentence Penal requirments effectively, sanely and in accordance with the "Spirit" of the law rather than the "Letter" of the law. I mentioned that if the same magistrate does not give the Maximum jail sentence allowed to all GBH and assault and Drink Driving cases they have proven my point, an innability to serve the interests, and safety of the local community, and that they should be removed from the magistrates bench immediately.

Tagging an pensioner, Curfew, £1000 fine for a Gold Fish The magistrate should have been removed from post the same day and sent for an Pyschiatrict evaluation.

Please if you are in the UK do the same or at least part of what I have done, at least an quick email to your MP demanding this is raised in Parliment, and agaisn explain their written responce will be made available and uploaded to a site with massive coverage and worldwide exposure.

Sick. If I was that person the shopowner I would probably be in depression, shock and anger for many years.

You can fiddle the country out of Houses, Money for Duck Ponds (MP Fraudulent Expenses) and walk with no tag or curfew or criminal record etc.... but this person cant sell a gold fish.

Kind Regards,

Elf

reply to post by TheWalkingFox

Those bastards

From source
Her offence was to unwittingly sell a goldfish to a 14-year-old boy taking part in a trading standards 'sting'.

What sort of narc/stool pidgeon or uptight prick this kid will grow to be. Probably another pig given authority who will abuse it to the max.

I'll post my reply from the other thread.

Originally posted by blupblup



About time too!!!

I'm sick of these goldfish peddlers man.... undercutting the honest and hard-working pet shop owners, not to mention the fairground folk.
I think this country is truly screwed when people go around selling goldfish.... I mean has she got a Goldfish licence?

A fish sellers permit...

I mean what would happen if everyone went around just selling fish to kids... the world would fall apart, that's what!!!

I mean how dare this old woman sell goldfish?

What is this world coming too.


I say lock her up and throw away the key.
/sarc

NOW IM PEE'D OFF

id like to thank the mods for closing the other post, just as i typed out a long reply ... thanks a bucketload dudes.

im not even going to bother posting it again, im going to keep this short...

basicly, all you clowns who are blindly following this story so you can think people in the uk are living in some sort of crazy land, how about you actualy read the story behing it on a local level, you know, local, as in the actual reporters who were in court and not the guy at the bigger newspaper who pulled the story from their site and rewrote it for their publication!

www.messengernewspapers.co.uk...

the best thing to is read all that, they are not so innocent.

the link above
animal welfare officers from Trafford’s Enviromental Health team arranged for a test purchase by a 14 year-old boy after learning a gerbil had been sold to an underage girl with special needs, the animal subsequently dying after being kept in a lidded disposable coffee cup. The pet shop, however, deny this, claiming their ledger shows they weren’t even stocking gerbils at the time.

the link above
On the ‘test purchase’, he added. “They both came in together, she stood by the door and the lad came and bought the goldfish. We thought they were together, and he looked old enough anyway - he was taller than me.

“They changed the law to make it 16 to buy animals if they’re not accompanied, and that’s right, but we thought they were together,” he added.

The court also heard a cockatiel in the shop at the time had a broken leg and an eye infection, and had to be put down, although Darren said the bird was not for sale and was being nursed back to health by the family who’d rescued it from a batch load of parrots.

“We were trying to do the right thing by it,” he said. “The other birds had been attacking it and so we’d separated it fro the others. Other people would have rung it’s neck.

other people would have said " put it out of its misey" not "rung its neck" ... but i seriously doubt that was the guys actual words, if they are their very stupid!

one thing that gets me, if what they say is true about the boy looking to be accompanied in the shop AND the selling of animals to people who cant take care of them and the animals ending dead... why did they plead GUILTY??!?!?

if their was someone with the child, then thats grounds for not guilty, but, theirs a very easy answer for this, if they plead not guilty, the police would then go looking at everything and still find them guilty, and dish out a heavier sentance!

now, im pretty against stupid laws, people getting served injustice and so on, but this woman knew she was breaking the law, had broke it in the past and continued... and she got caught red handed and now is complaining about her punishment.

remember, the goldfish is symbolic of an animal being sold, dont count this as "just another goldfish" ... the police or council (im not sure who done the sting) basicly got a kid to go in and buy the cheapest animal possible other than insects and the woman did not think twice and sold it... more the fool her in this day and age!

----

THE MAIN POINT OF THIS RANT IS TO TELL ALL YOU SHEEP OUT THEIR WHO READ THIS STORY AND REPLIED ABOUT UK BEING RAN BY CRAZYS (ok, thats half true... but at least we never voted them in!) , THAT THE UK IS SOME SORT OF CRAZY ASYLUM AND THAT UK LAWS ARE INSANE ... ALL I ASK YOU TO DO IS STOP, AND READ THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY, AND NOT THE RE-GURGITATED STORY THAT SOME GUY AT THE BIGGER PAPER JUST TOOK OFF THE LOCAL NEWS SITE AND REWROTE , THEN MADE SLIGHTLY MORE INTERESTING (like saying the kid was 14 when he was 15)

ALSO remember, in the uk, as most likely with most of the world, newspapers are supporters of various political groups! and at this time of existance, rolling up to a general election newspapers are going to be posting more crap like this than usual to try and make the voting people thing that the country is insane and we need to vote for the other guy...!

for instance

“They changed the law to make it 16 to buy animals if they’re not accompanied, and that’s right, but we thought they were together,”

who in the hell are they??? ... exactly!

man, storys like this make me so mad, mainly as people take it on face value and get all angry about it!

[edit on 5-4-2010 by boaby_phet]

Well there you have it. This old bag had it coming, didn't she? She is
obviously a repeat offender by first selling a Gerbil. When will these
hardened criminals ever learn their lesson? I say put her in prison and
in shackles for at least 20 years.

reply to post by endtimer


why blame the system for something thats her own stupid fault??

reply to post by ventian


Sorry bro, I just gotta one-up you;

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/38a6aac9525e.jpg[/atsimg]


I save this one for the REALLY stupid stuff.

reply to post by boaby_phet


Good grief !! You can't see that my entire post was making joke of this?
What is the matter with you? And I don't care about some ridiculous
system. And the poor old lady is really the guilty one here? Give it a break.

what ACTUALY annoys me is the fact people jump on this and critisize the uk over it ... (it was more like that on the previous post) when their just blindly following what the news sorce says.

i agree that the sentance is a bit stiff, thats not what my beef is with.

what baffles me is the fact that someone has been charged for breaking the law, not only that a law they were fully aware of and comlpetly and blindly ignored it ... now she has been done with said law and she is crying about it, and people back her and dont think about the process and everything leading up to this.

its like someone being done for looking at child porn, then turning round and using the defence "they looked 16" AND THEN saying " i knew what i was doing was illegal" ... maybe a bit of an extreme metaphore for the situation, but a good one all the same... as its an exact mirror of this situation, yet with a less serious crime.

what if she was selling knowingly selling puppies or kittens to local kids who were then going out and hurting / killing them ? would that be any different, as its the exact same crime!

but ... because its a goldfish, its insane... !

Don't you see how ridiculous this whole thing is? She DIDN'T sell
kittens and puppies so a bunch of teenagers could go out and shoot them.
You are comparing marbles to trucks. This elderly lady should not have
been set up by some little snot nosed punk so she would have to go to
court and pay an asinine fine for selling a freaking fish. She should not
have been charged in the first place. She should not have to pay an
exhorbitant amount of her savings to an equally ridiculous judge.
Your entire system should be flushed down the commode and let old
people alone who are near retirement age. Tell the bored littled Bobbies
to go out and bust a crook, not an old lady selling goldfish.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/29fdc8a74af6.jpg[/atsimg]

and heres me thinking this site was about denying ignorance of all sort, yet people cant see the media circus controlling what they think in front of their very yes..

YEY, lets cheer criminals, and lets blame every crime on us "not knowing it was bad"

good call!

it doesnt matter WHAT she was selling, period, as i mentioned, it was more symbolic of HER stupidity anyway!

SHE WAS WARNED
+SHE KNEW THE LAW
+SHE DID NOT GIVE A FLYING F++K
= SHE GOT CHARGED

yet, she is crying about it and everyone back her because a gold fish was mentioned... the stupidity of it blows me away!

btw, selling animals to disabled kids aint really very cool ... i mean, wtf is with that?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a042ab568875.jpg[/atsimg]


[edit on 5-4-2010 by boaby_phet]

double... ooopsie!

[edit on 5-4-2010 by boaby_phet]