Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Mentioned In Dispatches Mr Ryan Williams
The Times reports here on Mr Ryan Williams who has accrued costs of £7500.00p in fighting a £60.00p parking ticket.
Mr Williams who ironically is a clerical officer for Cardiff Council so no doubt usually on the "handing out" end of officialdom only earns some £280.00p per week so his costs represent a huge amount in terms of his income.
"Mr Williams said: “I stopped for a few seconds to drop off a passenger. I was near the zig-zag lines of a pedestrian crossing but I did not stop on them.
“I was so incensed at the injustice of it that I was determined to fight it all the way.”"
Unfortunately Mr Williams has lost his case as one of his witnesses failed to testify, in addition to his costs he has to pay the £60.00p fine and prosecution costs of £150.00p.
You might think Mr Williams has been stupid to accrue all these costs over a £60.00p matter, and rationally I might agree. In the final analysis though he's spent £7,500.00p of his money over the £60.00p matter, but the state has spent (estimated) £35,000.00p of our money on the same matter to get a return of £210.00p. So who's been really stupid, him whose wasted £7,500.00p of his own money, or us who've allowed the state to waste £35,000.00p of our money? We haven't even had the pleasure of wasting it ourselves.
In order to make up the money, the state will have to issue 500 uncontested tickets, if every unjustly issued ticket was fought with the tenacity and determination of Mr Williams then the state would have to watch it's step very carefully otherwise it would go bankrupt.
Mr Williams, you may have lost money, but if everyone fought like you, officialdom would be a lot easier and pleasanter to deal with.
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Aside: Rather interestingly in the print edition this story is on the same page as this one about Network Rail not spending £46 million pounds of state (i.e. our) money. The parking ticket is reported in terms of "cost to the taxpayer", but the Network Rail one certainly isn't reported in terms of savings to the taxpayer, I wonder why this difference in emphasis?
Mr Williams who ironically is a clerical officer for Cardiff Council so no doubt usually on the "handing out" end of officialdom only earns some £280.00p per week so his costs represent a huge amount in terms of his income.
"Mr Williams said: “I stopped for a few seconds to drop off a passenger. I was near the zig-zag lines of a pedestrian crossing but I did not stop on them.
“I was so incensed at the injustice of it that I was determined to fight it all the way.”"
Unfortunately Mr Williams has lost his case as one of his witnesses failed to testify, in addition to his costs he has to pay the £60.00p fine and prosecution costs of £150.00p.
You might think Mr Williams has been stupid to accrue all these costs over a £60.00p matter, and rationally I might agree. In the final analysis though he's spent £7,500.00p of his money over the £60.00p matter, but the state has spent (estimated) £35,000.00p of our money on the same matter to get a return of £210.00p. So who's been really stupid, him whose wasted £7,500.00p of his own money, or us who've allowed the state to waste £35,000.00p of our money? We haven't even had the pleasure of wasting it ourselves.
In order to make up the money, the state will have to issue 500 uncontested tickets, if every unjustly issued ticket was fought with the tenacity and determination of Mr Williams then the state would have to watch it's step very carefully otherwise it would go bankrupt.
Mr Williams, you may have lost money, but if everyone fought like you, officialdom would be a lot easier and pleasanter to deal with.
------
Aside: Rather interestingly in the print edition this story is on the same page as this one about Network Rail not spending £46 million pounds of state (i.e. our) money. The parking ticket is reported in terms of "cost to the taxpayer", but the Network Rail one certainly isn't reported in terms of savings to the taxpayer, I wonder why this difference in emphasis?
Tags: Mentioned in dispatches, Mr Ryan Williams, justice
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
