This certainly leafed him with a bad taste in his mouth.
An 86-year-old Englishman was hit with a preposterous fine for littering after two enforcement officers saw him spit out a leaf that had blown into his mouth.
Roy Marsh had stopped for a rest while walking through a parking lot in the tourist town of Skegness, on England’s east coast, when the wind blew a “big reed” into his mouth, he told the BBC.
“I spat it out, and just as I got up to walk away, two [enforcement officers] came up to me,” Marsh said.
The bewildered octogenarian said that when officers accused him of spitting on the ground, he responded by calling one of them a “silly boy.”
However, Marsh quickly realized they were not joking — and he was fined £250 ($335).
“It was all unnecessary and all out of proportion,” he recalled to the BBC.
Marsh said the fine was expected to be reduced to £150 ($200) after an appeal, but he was still required to pay the full amount.
County councillor Adrian Findley described the case as one of many examples of officers being “heavy-handed” with enforcement in the seaside town, which relies heavily on tourism.
“They are taking it too far,” Findley told the outlet.
Hellbound and Down 