Steve Jones was hundreds of miles away when offence was committed
The alleged offence occurred on Market Street(Image: Manchester Evening News)
A non-smoker claims his was issued a fine for dropping a cigarette in Manchester city centre – despite being hundreds of mils away at the time of the alleged offence.
Steve Jones who lives in Teddington, Greater London, says he was actually visiting a funeral director’s in Maidstone, when the crime was committed on December 14 last year.
Despite his pleas to the council that he was a victim of mistaken identity he was prosecuted in his absence a magistrates court.
Mr Jones does not smoke and at the time of his alleged offence was 250 miles from Market Street in the city centre, he claims.
The city council has now apologised for the debacle and say they are taking action to get the conviction set aside.
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Mr Jones was sent a letter demanding £433 for a fine and costs. In July he was sent another letter by the council It contained a copy of a fixed-penalty notice for £150 for allegedly dropping litter outside the H&M store on Market Street on the afternoon of December 14th last year, which warned that the maximum fine would rise to £2,500 if the case ended up in the magistrates court.
The letter gave him 21 days to respond, warning that after that the court would hear the case in his absence, and he may be convicted and fined.
Mr Jones told the Guardian: “I know I definitely wasn’t there, because my father-in-law died on December 13 and I was in Maidstone at a funeral directors.”
The address on the fixed-penalty notice was one in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, and while the birthday on the ticket matched Jones’s, the year of birth was 10 years later.
“It’s got the incorrect date of birth, then it’s got a description of me, which says I have hat hair, which I found quite odd,” he said. “I don’t know what hat hair means, and I don’t really have that much hair, because my hair is sort of number two all over, because I don’t have much of it left.”
He contacted the council again and after they checked camera evidnce they realised he was not the culprit.
“I don’t want this on my record,” Jones added, “and especially as I’m a teacher too. I don’t want to have this coming up in the future because someone’s not reading the correct details and not inputting the correct details.”
Mr Jones said he thought the matter was closed after he received an email apologising for the “administrative error”.
But he got another letter dated 28 August, saying he had been convicted and fined. “I just find it incredible that I’ve been convicted in my absence,” he said. ‘“I mean, that sounds really serious. This is really serious for me,” he said, “and I don’t feel confident that they are going to overturn it.”
A Manchester city council spokesperson told the Manchester Evening News: “The council is now doing everything in its power to have the conviction set aside at the next available opportunity to avoid any action being taken against Mr Jones to recover the penalty.
“We do, of course, apologise unreservedly for any distress or inconvenience caused to Mr Jones.”