Great Grandmother Fined £1000 & Tagged for selling a GOLDFISH !!!

This is a copy of a newspaper article that i copied today..because to me it once again PROVES how utterly ridiculous our Judicial system really is..an elderly lady tagged and fined £1000 no less for selling a goldfish !!!!!....and they even planted another young person to go into her Pet shop and purchase a goldfish, to prove the point..then swooped in and arrested her...How ridiculous is this (and how costly)...her son also got a fine and was ordered to do 120 hours of community Service...Crazy.. while certain Paedophiles we are told..must be allowed to walk free UNTIL their present case goes to Court..Then there is Jon Venables, who gets anonimity and countless hundreds of thousands of public money spent on rehoming him & giving him a new identity etc..While this poor lady is now not allowed to babysit her grandchildren or even go to bingo.. because of her criminal record..for selling a FISH..is it the World that as gone mad or just this Stupid, crazy appology for a Judicial system & a Government that allows sush nonsense to take place.

LONDON: A British great grandmother has been slapped with a fine of 1,000 pounds and ordered to wear an electronic tag for trading a goldfish to a teenaged boy.

Council officials caught pet shop owner Joan Higgins, 66, in an undercover sting. Legal proceedings - costing an estimated 20,000 pounds - against her took eight months following which she was fined and slapped with a curfew.

And now Joan is not allowed to babysit her great grandson at his mother's home or go to bingo.

Her son Mark, 47, of Sale, Greater Manchester, was asked to pay a fine of 750 pounds and ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work.

However, he has criticised the prosecution. "I think it's a farce and legal lunacy and I told the council that. What gets me so cross is that they put my mum on a tag. She's nearly 70, for goodness' sake," the Daily Star quoted Mark, as saying.

He added: "Mum has been running the shop for 28 years and this is the first time that anything like this has ever happened."

Last July the mother and son duo were caught selling goldfish to a 14-year-old boy, who was sent to the shop by Trafford council bosses.

A bill passed in 2005 makes it illegal to sell goldfish to under-16s and offenders can be sent to jail for up to a year.

At a hearing at Trafford Magistrates Joan and Mark pleaded guilty to selling the fish.