Partygate fine is not the end of it...

IN his letter (28th April), Mr Hill of Bristol makes a common mistake when he states that the ticket fine given to the Prime Minister and others in relation to their ‘partygate’ offences ‘is the end of it’.

Unlike continental ticket fines, where paying the fine is ‘the end of it’, the British PND ticket fine (Penalty Notices for Disorder) is very different, for in most cases the offender acquires a lifelong police record on the police national computer that is disclosed on every enhanced data barring service (DBS) document. It may not be named as a criminal record, but it is usually treated in a similar manner by employers and engagers of voluntary workers.

We are aware of a case where a young nurse was dismissed from her job ‘for having a police record’ and committed suicide, where a young man was barred from being a teacher and also committed suicide, and where three young people had to start a new life in another country because of their police records.

All these life records were for trivial ticket-fine matters, including ‘making a pig-like noise near undercover police officers’, ‘giving an obscene V-sign to a police CCTV’, ‘paddling in a fountain’, ‘climbing a city tree’ and discretely peeing behind a hedge in a lay-by.

So if the ‘partygate’ offenders fail to get elected at the next election, they may find that their police record makes it very difficult or even impossible to get another decent job, or even be a volunteer bell-ringer or baby-sitter. Paying the fine is only the tip of the iceberg of Britain’s draconian PND ticket fine system.

Rev Geoffrey Squire Barnstaple, North Devon