Be careful compadre's...

[mikebratcher69]

I got a £30 fine of pc plod today for attempting to drive elsewhere other than on the queens highway...
was I joy riding? No...
I was attempting to test run a model aircraft engine on a local field away from joe public so as to be nice and not disturb local residents.
I made the mistake of leaving the road and trying to drive over grass to where I knew there was a secluded place where I probably would disturb people less.
Long story short, the car got stuck hubs deep in mud, took us half an hour of rocking to get free...then plod turned up, wanted to arrest me for criminal damage of the grass!!
he's also reporting me to the council in case they want to charge me to repair the grass....
I take it as a lesson of how quickly you can come to the wrong persons attention for a seemingly innocent act...
I was trying to be respectfull to residents, look at what occured.
Lessons learned?
sure, my boys are now even more anti police than before and I certainly will be ess considerate about other people in the future.
learn from my scrape people, be careful about what you do, and where you do it in case people notice you......

[Kenneth Eames]

Hello Mike, I am sorry to hear this. I think this is a horrible story and cannot believe that you were fined for being on the grass. I've seen many vehicles parked on the grass in my lifetime. I know you had sunk in the mud but would have thought They would have helped to assist you in getting out. These cops today are far different from the cops of the past. Kenneth Eames.

[Nemesis]

I always thought this time of year we don't drive on grass, as you will damage it, a general rule.

One point near where I live there is a huge village green kind of split into 3, and cars are not allowed to park on this but come the good weather your see 20/30 trucks/cars and people chatting and eating and so on all over these grass greens, the police never bother any of us because we respect it, come end of day there won't be any little and this goes on year after year.

I question your judgment on this.

Don’t misunderstand me I hate how our country is fenced up so tight, I just think you picked wrong time of year to drive on the grass maybe?

[Skean Dhude]

Sorry to hear that. Plods xmas collection is now better off. Hope you don't get anything from the council but they are just as bad.

I must admit I avoid driving on grass because you get stuck in this weather. Was this a test of your BOV? If so you need a new one.

[NorthernRaider]

And yet as I type on Tv is various UK based Cop programs showing the police driving across fields and parks at speed chasing naughty boys on motorbikes and in cars, I do hope the police are going to prosecute their own drivers?

[Nemesis]

(10 December 2011, 19:37)Skean Dhude Wrote: Sorry to hear that. Plods xmas collection is now better off. Hope you don't get anything from the council but they are just as bad.

I must admit I avoid driving on grass because you get stuck in this weather. Was this a test of your BOV? If so you need a new one.

I have NOT tested this but I read other night that ash is good to get you unstuck, since I got my log burner been reading about ash and its uses.

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(10 December 2011, 20:10)NorthernRaider Wrote: And yet as I type on Tv is various UK based Cop programs showing the police driving across fields and parks at speed chasing naughty boys on motorbikes and in cars, I do hope the police are going to prosecute their own drivers?

NR are you suggesting that if a kid robs someone or something and heads to a grass field, that counts as neutral ground and therefore they are safe like grasslomatic immunity hehe. If police are chasing they should have good reason for it, I am sure they are not just giving chase because they are just naughty boys.

[NorthernRaider]

If a tax payer accidentally damages the grass and is treated as a criminal then so should the police?

[Nemesis]

(10 December 2011, 20:43)NorthernRaider Wrote: If a tax payer accidentally damages the grass and is treated as a criminal then so should the police?

You were talking about a cop TV show with police chasing kids that most likely had done a crime.

Would you not get annoyed if say a member of your family on a motor bike chased down a mugger or worse, onto green grass and tackled the person to the ground and was then billed for damage to grass? Would you still say that is right thing to do as in bill your family member?

[NorthernRaider]

(10 December 2011, 20:58)WetandCold Wrote:

(10 December 2011, 20:43)NorthernRaider Wrote: If a tax payer accidentally damages the grass and is treated as a criminal then so should the police?

You were talking about a cop TV show with police chasing kids that most likely had done a crime.

Would you not get annoyed if say a member of your family on a motor bike chased down a mugger or worse, onto green grass and tackled the person to the ground and was then billed for damage to grass? Would you still say that is right thing to do as in bill your family member?

Not the case though is it, the police are required to comply with the same laws as the rest of us, so if they decide to prosecute someone for accidentally damaging public green space then they must be held to the same standard, its not so long since a cop car side swiped a cyclist on a cycle land up here because he drove his car off the highway and onto the enclosed cycle path. A local yob who kiled a kid in newport middlesbrough got 7 years for a similar offence. It does not matter what the criminal has done because its not relivent, The officer should not be charging people with criminal damage if caused acidentally otherwise they leave themselves open to a counter suite.

I'm obviously not saying the cops should not pursue criminals, I'm saying they should not be making stupid charges that are at best a civil offence and should be dealt with a caution at best. BUT if the idiot cop wants to start citing people for accidfentally damaging public land then they have to chagre people putting up marquees for events, people landing hot air balloons etc etc.

The cop where Mike lives is an idiot simple as that.

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(10 December 2011, 20:58)WetandCold Wrote: Would you not get annoyed if say a member of your family on a motor bike chased down a mugger or worse, onto green grass and tackled the person to the ground and was then billed for damage to grass? Would you still say that is right thing to do as in bill your family member?

That sort of official stupidity actually goes on, its happened to me, Years ago I was driving down the ring road towards the round about in the middle of the night, I can across three cars in a crash on the round about, I rendered asistance and used the call box phone to call for help. Two weeks later I got a bill for £28 for each of the two ambulances that attended, then a month later the effing fire brigade tried to bill me for £300 for calling the fire service. Didnt pay obviously, but now I just drive right on past any accidents I come across. And IIRC I think it was one of the Pennine or Lakeland Mountain resacue teams who forced their vehicles through a hedgerow to gain access to a path up to some casualties and the council tried to charge them for damaging the hedgerow.

You have to realise our public services do have lots of good people, but equally they are outbnumbered by halfwits.

[Nemesis]

NR in all fairness I think your changing your original reply to this post as we go along, my response was to that post.

This can go round and round and there is no good in it, for example yes the police do comply with the same laws as us as in they represent the law and are not law, but in order to represent the law they cannot always comply with the laws of this land, i.e. go on to private land to arrest someone chased on to it.

I once knocked down a concrete lamp post should I have been billed?, I reversed into it and bent it (it had like metal rods in it which kept it up) it was an accident on public land.

The police do damage tax payer pays for it, that’s how it has always been, so yes they are liable for damages as are we.

Should they be allowed to do fixed penalty’s is another question.

Maybe Mike made a bad call today when he went off road, if it was dry maybe the police car would have just drove past him, but instead his truck was buried quite deep in the mud, I say bad call we all make them.