The Official Nonsense Thread

[Minty]

Somedays, I REALLY hate this petty minded little country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-ta...l-22345919

Man guilty over toy gun outside bank in Stirling

A homeless man who was found sitting outside a bank with a bright orange toy gun has been convicted of having an "imitation weapon".

Scott Park, 33, was handcuffed and led away by police after being found with the toy gun outside the Royal Bank of Scotland in Stirling in June last year.

Initially he was charged with a breach of the peace but prosecutors changed it to one of breaching the Firearms Act.

Sheriff Derek O'Carroll deferred sentence for background reports.

During the sheriff-only trial at Stirling Sheriff Court, CCTV footage was shown of Park huddled on the steps of the bank, which was closed at the time, as passers-by occasionally dropped coins in his plastic cup.

Police were alerted after a teenage girl saw the bright orange gun fall out of his pocket.

She said she asked him what he was going to do with it and that he had replied he was going to use it if people refused to give him money.

She said she was not sure if he was joking.

Depute fiscal Lindsey Brooks, prosecuting, argued a toy gun could fall foul of the Firearms Act if it "looked like a gun".

Alistair Burleigh, defending, said the item his client had was "florescent bright orange, entirely constructed of plastic, and quite obviously simply a toy".

A firearms expert told the court the gun was perfectly legal and it was bright orange because legislation says that non-imitation toy guns have to be a bright colour to distinguish them from real guns.

But Sheriff O'Carroll said it had the appearance of a firearm. He said children had "lawful excuse" for possessing such things - for playing cowboys and Indians.

He said the case raised "a major public policy issue".

Outside court Park said the verdict was "unbelievable".

They used a ridiculous charge to lift him in the first place because "we can't have beggers outside of our nice clean bank" - but the sick irony is they've done him a favour. Now he has a nice warm cell with no more worries about food, shelter, hygiene, healthcare, etc. for perhaps an extended length of time considering it was a "firearms" offence; as opposed to the "freedom" to freeze or starve to death die on the streets. He has just been taught what an ass the law is, what an ass this country is.

This country would make a Communist out of Gordon Gecko with its idea of fairness & justice.