A MUM has issued an urgent seaside warning over a “bizarre” rule that could see you slapped with a £200 fine for an honest mistake.
Jacqueline Clarke, 34, was eating a McDonald’s next to a seafront Tesco store in Sheerness, Kent, when she accidentally dropped her food.
Soon after a seagull quickly swooped in and gobbled up some of the Maccies chips she had dropped.
Jacqueline claims it was then that a “hidden” environment warden emerged – and told her she had littered.
And she was hit with a whopping £200 fine for littering, which she is now appealing.
The mum-of-three, who walks dogs for a living, says she simply doesn’t have the money to spare.
Jacqueline, from the Isle of Sheppey, said she and her husband Neil had gone to a McDonald’s drive-thru one afternoon earlier this month.
She said: “I’d just finished work. Me and Neil didn’t want to sit in the car and eat, so we went to the very back of the Tesco car park by the sea wall and just sat next to the car.
“As I was eating my McDonald’s I dropped a couple of chips on the floor by accident and a seagull swooped down and ate them, like they do.
“Then about thirty seconds after an environment officer came out from behind a car, where he was hiding, wearing all black clothes.
“We didn’t see any proper ID, he just flashed it very quickly and didn’t let us look at it before he said that we’re not allowed to do that with the chips and we’ve just littered.”
A gobsmacked Jacqueline was then told the incident was “caught on CCTV” and she was about to be slapped with a £200 fine.
The mum continued: “We told him we just dropped a couple of chips and the birds ate them, but he said, ‘It doesn’t matter, you can’t do that – so you’re going to be fined’.
“He gave us no chance to apologise or explain ourselves.
“I just said, ‘We can’t afford a £200 fine, what are we supposed to do?’.
“He said it wasn’t his problem.”
The £200 penalty notice Mrs Clarke later received in the post – reduced to £150 if paid within 14 days – claimed the Swale Borough Council officer had witnessed “the lady feeding the birds chips” which he had “reason to believe was an offence”, according to KentOnline.
When asking for her details, the officer also hadn’t taken her name down correctly, despite Jacqueline having spelled it out for him, she claims.
She said: “He was very arrogant about it. There’s no signs at all either that say don’t feed the birds and I said to the officer that I really didn’t know what I’d done wrong.
“We even took all our food packaging and rubbish away with us once we’d finished eating.
“I asked him if it was a joke because we’ve had problems with our bins recently.”
She continued: “I even paid for a private company to empty four of our wheelie bins because the council wouldn’t come in to do it…
“How hypocritical is that? I pay for the rubbish to be collected and then I’m fined for dropping a couple of chips.
“I just think they’re targeting the wrong people.
“It was ironic because where we were sat, we were surrounded by rubbish, that we hadn’t dropped.
“When it happened I said to him, ‘So you’re not allowed to go and feed the ducks, you’re not allowed to put any food on the floor for any animal?’ “He said, ‘You can’t go and feed the ducks’.
“I just thought it was bizarre.”
Mrs Clarke has now appealed her fine, having received it when she was away, saying that paying would mean her children would go hungry.
She added: “I’m a dog walker. I’m on a really low wage and I have three children under 13 years old.
“I’m appealing the £200 fine because I don’t have the money in my bank account to pay it.
“I’m in debt. I genuinely can’t pay it. It would mean I can’t feed my children for a week.
“They’re not going to get the money because I haven’t got it.”
A spokesman for Swale Borough Council said: “We are currently reviewing the matter and can’t comment on an active investigation.”
