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Man, 86, Fined Over $300 for Littering Because He Spit Out a Leaf That Blew into His Mouth: 'Unnecessary' Roy Marsh ended up paying a lesser amount after the fee was later reduced on appeal
By
Nicholas Rice
Published on December 14, 2025 01:00PM EST
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Roy Marsh.Credit : Jane Marsh Fitzpatrick/Facebook
NEED TO KNOW
- A man was fined hundreds of dollars because he spit out a leaf that blew into his mouth
- Roy Marsh, 86, ended up paying a lesser amount after the fee was later reduced on appeal
- "It was all unnecessary," the elderly man said of the enforcement issue
An elderly man was fined for an unusual reason.
Roy Marsh, 86, was in Lincolnshire, England, earlier this year, when he spit out a leaf that blew into his mouth, leading to a fine.
"As I was sitting there, a gale blew a big reed into my mouth," he recalled to the BBC, referring to the plant part of the grass family. "I spat it out, and just as I got up to walk away, two [enforcement officers] came up to me."
Marsh told the outlet that one of the officers told him they saw him spitting on the floor, which led to the elderly man calling the local enforcer a "silly boy."
"It was all unnecessary and all out of proportion," Marsh said, per the BBC.
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Roy Marsh (left) and wife Anne Marsh (right).Jane Marsh Fitzpatrick/Facebook
Marsh ended up receiving a fine of $334.50, though it was later reduced on appeal to $200.70. The man paid the latter.
Adrian Findley, a county councillor who works as a representative for Reform on Lincolnshire County Council, told the BBC he had received numerous similar complaints from others in the area.
"[Enforcement officers] are taking it too far. ... There needs to be discretion about how they [enforcement officers] issue fines," he told the outlet, adding, "If it looks like a genuine accident, then give people the opportunity to apologize and pick it up." |
