On Nov 25, 10:01*am, JMS wrote:
On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:05:50 -0000, "Mrcheerful"

wrote:
In the Oxford crackdown on unlit cycles which netted 106 unlit bikes in a
very short time, the police issued 30pound FPNs, but agreed to waive that if
a receipt for bike lights was produced in 7 days. *The receipt was stamped
by the police. *The cyclists have then been returning the lights and asking
for refunds!! *The police have asked that any shop that refunds for the
lights get and pass on names and addresses of the serial lawbreakers so that
a 60 pound fpn can be issued.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/archive/...ews/8672181.St...

Mrcheerful

Wicked

"During a three-hour operation in High Street, Oxford, on Monday,
November 1, 106 cycles were issued with 30 fines for riding without
lights."

I think this is quite unfair.

The majority will have had working lights when they set off - but the
batteries will have failed en-route.

Police recently (well, now I come to think about it 2-3 years ago) did
a similar thing with child seats. They turned up at schools, and
*warned* the parents who were driving illegally (no FPNs - just
verbally) what they needed to do. They then went back a month later,
and issued almost as many FPNs as they had warnings. I.e. people had
ignored them.

It was quite an amusing radio piece, as this gobby "innit" chavvy
women tried to go on about how the police was "persecuting" them, but
couldn't answer the reporters (fair point) about why they chose to do
nothing despite having had a months notice.