Magistrate insanity

Sensible policies etc

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Colin Irvine

I am with you.

Although I'd also have the dog put down.

 

AOL, especially if the dog mainly barked when left on its own & banning
him from driving makes it a lot harder for him to go out.

 

Maximum fine for breaching a Section 80 EPA 1990 notice is only level 5
unless on industrial, trade or business premises, so a few thousand
quid. Theoretically the court can also impose a daily penalty, but the
administrivia necessary to bring it back before the court means that
this sanction is seldom if ever used.

The article didn't say that the fine (total for two offences) and costs
imposed weren't paid. Classic case of paying to commit a nuisance.
Presumably the fine was assessed in accordance with income and the
offender probably given time to pay by a quid a week or something. There
in lies the rub.

There has been much talk of confiscating the canine in such cases, but
unless there are also animal welfare issues it is never going to happen.
In any case the offender could just replace it with another possibly
equally vocal mutt the next day.

With enough determination a High Court Injunction can be applied for by
the LA, and if granted the perpetrator definitely faces ending up with a
custodial sentence. Rare, but it has been done.

I wasn't aware that the magistrates could apply penalties that aren't on
the standard tariff for the offence. My how times change.

--
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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
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snipurl is down, at least for that link. Got a proper url?

 

I suspect DNS issues at your end.

Anyway:

<http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/content/twm/news/story.aspx?brand=Wes
tonmercury&category=news&tBrand=westonmercury&tCategory=znews&itemid=WeE
D25%20Jan%202010%2017%3A31%3A42%3A217>

 

Ditto.
I knew this would be a bad idea when it was first introduced. Very
possibly the **** deserves it, but it's just not right.
I can see other circumstances where a driving ban for an unrelated
offence leads to loss of employment, house, marriage, etc. OK, some
cunts might deserve that too, but not all.

 

They'll jump right over the "Banned from driving" to "Hang the annoying
little ****" and rightly so.

--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Everything else works and it's OpenDNS, so who knows.

Eye Thang Kew.

 

I have to air my Animal Rights credentials and suggest that the poor old
Pooch hasn't put a paw wrong.

Given the non stop yapping the dog is probably unhappy with his lot.

The current owner could be doing with a steel toecap in the Nads (applied
3-6 times) and an order precluding further animal ownership. With a bit of
publicity you will see a queue of BHALC (Bleeding Heart Animal Lover Club)
types forming at the gate offering Rover a nice new home.

 

Quite, but, given our wonderful legal system that many on here seem
quite happy to side step by finding a loophole in the paperwork, taking
another prosecution takes just as much evidence gathering, PACE
disclosure and all that other paperwork to take him back before the
court.

Large companies are tempted to indulge in it more than the common man.
What is even 20,000 quid to a big player? In their case the cost of
abating a nuisance may be far more than that of paying fines. In his,
the fine was clearly insufficient to change his behaviour.

A bit like paying your way in on the spot speeding fines innit?

It does seem a good way of getting his attention. The proof, as always,
will be in the pudding.

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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

OK, how about banning someone from driving for non-payment of child
maintenance?

Is that a fair punishment in your opinion?

 

I'm sure I'm walking into a trap here, but I'm not sure - it would
depend on the variables.

 

It has already happened.

I can't see how it's an appropriate punishment - especially as it's
likely to remove the ability to earn and pay the maintenance.

You may think it's fitting punishment in some cases - but the worrying
thing is that it apears that magistrates are free to hand out driving
bans for all kinds of non motoring offences these days.

Which can't be right, can it?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, 'Hog

"Animal Rights"? Give me a fucking break.

 

Sounds fair. I had to get the council to step in over one of our neighbours'
dog. How the stupid cow failed to hear it barking at 1am, 2am 3 am.... I
don't know.


--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

That'd be a shame, given how well the dog and owner are matched - both
barking ...

 

Long story, but I'm bored:

Had a neighbour's dogs barking incessantly at night for years. We
never complained but were pissed off that he wasn't doing anything
about it.

So comes a time when I decided the old garage separate to the house
(too small to fit cars in properly and a pain for bikes, but that's
another story) should be converted to a band practice room. I spent
$3-4k on soundproofing material and got hold a shitload of carpet
which we lined 3 layers thick over the soundproofing insulation with
the last layer having an air gap between the other two. We hung bass
baffles in the room. Cool. Off we go.

Get noise complaint don't we? Guess from whom? Get a visit from the
council. He came down on a weekday so I was the only one there, the
other guys from the band were working, I worked from home. I took him
in and showed him what I'd done. I then fired up the PA, stuck a
thumpy CD in and cranked up to what I honestly reckon was our practice
level and then closed the doors and we walked outside. Council guy
scratches his head and wonders why the guy had complained and says
fine.

Couple of weeks later we are practicing (at 2pm on a Wednesday
afternoon for about 2-3 hours). The next day I get a call from the
council guy again. "I'm sorry but I am going to have to come down with
a meter, there's been another complaint from him". Christ.

OK, this time I arrange for our drummer and one of our guitarists to
meet us there. Council dude wanders off with meter. By law we were
illegal. We aren't allowed to be more than 5dbA above ambient noise in
someone's living area, any time of day. Our recorded noise level?
58dbA. **** me, every car driving up the street is going to make more
noise than that. OK, we lived in a quiet little beachside hamlet, but
fucking lawnmowers and chainsaws and shit like that are going to be
waaaaaay higher than anything we were doing. We had to stop.

Anyway, back to the dogs. Suddenly said dogs were quiet. Not a single
bark. We figured he must have had their vocal chords removed or
something. I believe there is some operation they can do? I felt sorry
in a way for the poor dogs.

Addendum:
I had a plan to get around it (which unfortunately was interceded by a
divorce). I had a big shed on the spare block next door and a spare
rather large subwoofer with a 2000w PA amp to drive it. We were going
to feed a tone generator into it at around 10Hz, so you couldn't hear
it. Call council guy down again and say we had made modifications to
the soundproofing. Let him record ambient noise with the subwoofer
running which would lift ambient up nicely to meet us and we'd be lost
amongst that when we started playing. Never got the chance to see
whether that would work, but can't see why not.

 

In communiqué <>, Kevin

Ah, the downside to rigid noise control rules, rather than the UK
'nuisance' approach (except for the Noise Act night time noise
provisions).

There is, but it is illegal in some countries. Dogs can be fitted with
collars that dissuade them from barking.

I can. Google "equal loudness curves" and "A weighting".


--
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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

In principle, I'm not sure why you would say that. In the old days all
sorts of punishments were used, some of which were related to the
crime, some of which were not. For example, the use of corporal
punishment was never restricted to crimes of violence, fines were, and
still are, used when no financial hardhip has been incurred to a
victim, and loss of life was commonplace for lots of things apart from
murder.

OK, so some of these have now been withdrawn from use, but the
principle that a punishment can only be imposed if related to the
crime is one that's never been part of the British justice system.