This is unbelievable,

[trt]

But true!!!!!

It says it all about the justice system in this Country.

http://www.dailymail....r-electronic-tag.html

[Gromit]

She will not be able to go to the Rod Stewart Concert - so every cloud has a silver lining

[Ankou]

well if one good thing came of it, at least the goldfish was adopted and will probably live happily ever after.

i'm with socket, she broke the law, but the balance of sentence against the crime sounds erroneous.

[jno]

I'm loving Zeuhl's idea of a trading standards officer roaming the restaurants of the land saying 'I'll have the salmonella-infested chicken please, and a glass of dirty tap water.'

Yes, she broke the law. Yes, the sentence is daft.

[McMouse]

Ask your local authority to confirm how many "compliance" officers they employ and to detail the range of activities they monitor. You will be staggered by the huge bureaucracy that has been spawned by UK slavish compliance with EU directives. Every time EU introduces a new regulation the relevant Whitehall department advises townhalls across the country. Local authority then advertises for a compliance officer who then gets an office, car and staff. Incentive bonuses then paid for collaring unwitting public.
For many years I managed office facilities across Europe and it was laughable the way EU directives and 'Elf & Safety were completely ignored, particularly in southern Europe where inspection and compliance with building regulations etc did not happen, though certificates were issued.

[modeller]

She should have stabbed him and then all she would have got was a slap on wrist.

[jackthehat]

Mcmouse - working in the construction industry with the endless alterations to the Building Regulations, with new directives/regulations on all manner of things 'to bring us into line with Europe', I have always wondered how rigorously these regs. are followed in rural areas of the Mediterranean countries...............I think you've just confirmed what I've thought. :o)

[McMouse]

Jack.........I kid you not, I went to Lisbon to sign off the fit-out of offices in the city centre and was suspicious of the glass panels in doors and partition walls. It turned out the contractor had used agricultural glazing, yet had received relevant certificates. We then had a detailed look at the wiring........nuff said.

[Ankou]

you would be surprised (or pehaps not) how many building regulation certificates i receive which upon my inspection are then found to be useless (or downright negligent) and i am talking about issues with fire in residential accomodation.

nevermind rural meditterranean, we are talking uk 2010.

[ummmm]

It's just on 'This Morning' It was called operation Nemo....

The boy, at 14, was 6ft tall.

[McMouse]

What ummmm?

[ummmm]

This thread is about the woman selling a 14 year old a goldfish...

[Gromit]

As usual with anything unbelievable in the Daily Mail, it is interesting what they have left out of the story to make it worse than it is. Viewed from another source and we learn...

// While in the shop, the council officer who was with the boy noticed a cockatiel in a poor state of health with a sign on the cage that said ‘cockatiels £30’.

The officer, along with a vet, returned to the Ashfield Road shop last July and the vet diagnosed the bird had a broken leg, eye problems and laboured breathing. It was so unwell it had to be put down. //

The goldfish was a test purchase. The shop had not been randomly chosen, it had been reported to the council

// Council officials began an investigation after being told they were selling animals to children. //

The charge wan't just selling animals to the under aged it was for...
// selling the fish to a person aged under 16 and for causing unnecessary suffering to a cockatiel by failing to provide appropriate care and treatment. //

They both pleaded guilty

http://www.manchester...g_goldfish_to_a_child

[Ankou]

yes but you are forgetting some very important points aimed at tugging your heart strings, and presumably producing (in normal people anyhow) a discordant chord of of trollop:

a) she cannot baby sit her newborn great grandson for 7 weeks (but only between 6pm - 7am, which i would guess at 70 she wouldn't do anyway ??) and if not, why can't he travel there ?

b) she neglected the care and injury of the animals in her care (for several weeks) and her business, but this is ok and acceptable as she was distracted by her son being in hospital, apparently. one wonders why she couldn;t have phoned a vet to come in, or got someone else to take the bird,

but hey ho, it all just adds to the "heart wrenching" (and sickening) reporting methods emplyed by the mail.

[youngmafbog]

Gromit, the sentence is still wrong. If she was as bad as you seem to want to make out and the sentence implies, why did she keep her licence to trade. Surely that should be the first thing to go in a serious case.?

[Gromit]

Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, you face prosecution for

- Causing an animal to suffer unnecessarily.
- Selling an animal to a person under 16 years old who is not accompanied by

If you are found guilty of an offence under the Act, you can be fined, sent to prison, have your animals taken away from you, and/or disqualified from keeping animals in the future.

The Act increases the penalties available for the most serious offences. The maximum penalty is imprisonment for up to 51 weeks, or a fine of up to £20,000, or both.

So a fine of £1000 could be seen as lenient.

[Everhelpful]

What Planet are you on,gromit? It;s a Goldfish we are talking about,since when has a Goldfish been an animal.

[Zeuhl]

Everhelpful

please read the posts so far - the goldfish was just a test purchase!

these people had been reported already for several offences.

[Gromit]

// since when has a Goldfish been an animal. //

For about 500 million years.

[jno]

Everhelpful, you are possibly descended from a goldfish. Wouldn't you have liked your grandpa properly cared for?

[Zeuhl]

//A fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins.//

wikipaedia