Shopper who accidentally dropped receipt as he pulled phone out of his pocket was ‘bullied into paying £75 fine by PCSOs’
His phone started ringing and as he got it out of his pocket the receipt fell out
LITTER cops pounced on a man within seconds of him accidentally letting a receipt fall out of his pocket when he pulled out his phone.
The shopper was immediately surrounded by two litter cops who then called for back-up from two PCSO's after he protested he had no idea it had fallen to the ground.
The smartly-dressed shopper, thought to be in his 30s, had been in the St Ann's Shopping Centre when his phone started ringing.
As he took it from his pocket, a receipt fluttered to the floor.
He was swiftly confronted by two passing civil enforcement officers, who work for Harrow Council, and slapped with a £75 on-the-spot fine for littering.
Witnesses watched aghast as the man said he would pick it up and had not realised it had fallen from his pocket, even saying he needed the receipt anyway incase the item he had purchased needed returning, but the officers were having none of it and radioed for 'help' from bosses stating they were dealing with someone who was "refusing to pay".
Within three minutes two PCSOs arrived at the scene - and the shopper was surrounded.
The four officers told him he had to pay the fine - which he eventually reluctantly agreed to pay - giving his name and address and payment details.
Witness Dylan Shah, 34, who lives in Harrow, said: "The man explained that he wasn’t aware he had dropped any litter, but one of the guys (civil enforcement officers) radioed the police and said he was refusing to pay.
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“He wasn’t being aggressive at all., but three minutes later two community support officers came and told him to pay."
Mr Shah said he spoke to the civil enforcement officers after the man paid the fine and berated them.
He said: "I went up to them afterwards and said ‘Do you think it is right what you have done?’ because they had basically bullied him.
"The civil officers just laughed and walked away. I think it’s disgraceful."
Local man Steven Gregg said: "The litter cops around here jump on you as soon as you drop anything - I saw one women get hassled when her kid dropped a sweetie wrapper.
"I even saw a man getting a talking too after leaving a newspaper on a bench."
A spokesman for Harrow Council said that PCSOs are only called in to "diffuse situations" when people refuse to pay on-the-spot fines to civil enforcement officers.
He added anyone fined could "appeal if they felt aggrieved".
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