£1,000 fine for selling a goldfish

BRITAIN'S legal system was branded a farce last night after a pet shop owner was threatened with jail, heavily fined and tagged – for selling a goldfish to a 14-year-old boy.

Joan Higgins was fined 1 000 for selling an animal to someone under 16 Joan Higgins was fined £1,000 for selling an animal to someone under 16

Great-grandmother Joan Higgins, 66, felt the full weight of the law after being caught in a “sting” set up by her local council which sent the youngster to buy the £1.50 fish in a test purchase.

And after an eight-month wait to appear in court she almost fainted when she was fined £1,000 for selling an animal to someone under 16.

Mrs Higgins, who has run the shop for 28 years, was also put under a 7pm to 7am curfew for seven weeks and electronically tagged after magistrates accepted she was not well enough to do community service.

Last night the “draconian” sentence sparked fury, with Tory MP Philip Davies saying: “This punishment is absolutely ridiculous, completely disproportionate to the offence. What purpose is being served by tagging and putting someone like this under a curfew?

That sort of thing is designed to keep people who are likely to cause trouble off the street at nights, not limit the movement of an elderly lady who has wrongly sold a goldfish. It is a draconian sentence. Yobs who blight neighbourhoods, burglars and those guilty of assault get off far more lightly.”

Environmental health officials set up an undercover operation after being told Mrs Higgins and her son Mark, 47, sold animals to under-16s, an offence under the 2005 Animal Welfare Act.

They sent the youngster, whom the couple claim was nearly 15 and almost 6ft tall, into their shop in Sale, Greater Manchester, last July and the pair were prosecuted for selling him the goldfish, for failing to check his age or to offer advice about caring for it.

Yesterday Mrs Higgins said she was “staggered” by the sentence, which meant she could not get to her weekly bingo sessions or babysit her one-month-old great-grandson. She will also miss a Rod Stewart concert after she was bought tickets by her nephew, TV actor Will Mellor.

She said: “When I heard I was being fined so much and also told I would have to wear a tag I was devastated. I thought tags were for people who did naughty things at night, not great grandmothers.

“I didn’t deliberately go out to break the law and the boy involved certainly looked 16.”

Mark, who was fined £750 and ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work, condemned the prosecution which has cost the taxpayer an estimated £10,000 as a “farce and judicial joke”. He said: “What gets me so cross is that they put my mum on a tag and she’s nearly 70, for goodness sake. She’s not going to be causing mischief in the night.”

Describing the prosecution as “entrapment” because the boy appeared much older than 14, he said: “Mum has been running the shop for 28 years and the only time she has ever been in court was for jury service.”

The pair pleaded guilty at Trafford Magistrates Court to selling the fish to a person under 16. They also admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a cockatiel by failing to provide appropriate care and treatment.

Mrs Higgins told the court she had bathed the bird’s eye daily and intended to take it to a vet but had been distracted because her other son was in hospital.

Council spokesman Iain Veitch said: “We have many responsible pet shops in the borough who provide adequate advice and care for animals and we will always try to support pet and business owners so they are able to care for their animals properly. But where they ignore the advice they are given, we will not hesitate to use our statutory powers.”

The case is in stark contrast to the treatment meted out to much more serious offenders.

In July 2004 paedophile former judge David Selwood walked free from Bow Street Magistrates Court in London with a 12-month community order after pleading guilty to downloading indecent images of young boys.

In June last year convicted killer Keith Hopkins, 27, robbed frail pensioner Winifred Phipps, 81, but was given a community order – because he was scared of going back to prison.

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