Motorist fined £88 for ‘littering’ when he was caught WEEING in a layby gets penalty overturned… after proving he has a weak bladder (and now the 69-year-old vows to keep a receptacle in his car in case of another emergency!)
A motorist who was fined £88 for 'littering' when he was caught urinating in a car park has had his fine overturned – by proving he has a weak bladder.
Michael Mason, 69, claimed his weakened prostate meant he 'couldn't help it' if he had to stop to pee halfway through his two-hour journey, adding: 'If I had gone any further I would have found myself soiled.'
He paid his GP £30 to write a letter confirming that his medical condition was the cause of his inability to control it.
Council bosses threw out the fine after 'hearing all the facts'.
Mr Mason, from Buckinghamshire, stopped at the last lay-by on the A41 near Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, just before it joins the M25.
He told the BBC: 'I made sure no one could see me and was very, very discreet.'
Michael Mason, 69, from Winslow, Buckinghamshire, was fined £88 but given his money back after proving he has prostate cancer
Mr Mason was caught whilst parked in the car park on the A41, near Kings Langley, Hertfordshire (pictured)
But a district enforcement officer, working on behalf of Dacorum Borough Council, was present at the time.
They knocked on Mr Mason's window and told him he had been caught 'messing around'.
According to the BBC, Mr Mason claimed to have apologised, explaining that it only happened because it was an 'emergency'.
Mr Mason said he 'politely explained to the enforcement officer that this is not something I normally do'.
He added: 'I was about to drive onto the M25 motorway, it just came on and that was it, I couldn't do anything about it.'
He was warned that if he did not pay the FPN within 14 days it would amount to £2,500.
Dacorum Borough Council agreed to extend the payment deadline until December 12 and invited him to provide medical evidence about his condition.
It originally said he “did not mention any medical conditions in his representation.”
It later added: “Since we learned all the facts, we are pleased that the FPN has been rightly disbanded in this case.”
For people with prostate conditions, wild animals are not that unusual, according to Dr Nighat Arif, an NHS GP from Buckinghamshire.
She said: 'For men with prostate problems, the need to rush to the toilet, urgency and frequent urination are sometimes the first, easily overlooked symptoms.
'The signals that the bladder receives in the brain as a result of the pressure from an enlarged prostate make it difficult for a person to resist the urge to urinate.'
Prostate problems are common in men over 50.
Enlargement of the gland the size of a walnut, cancer and inflammation can all cause the frequent need to urinate.
The council said the fine was for 'littering' and said that 'urination is classified as litter by the Environmental Protection Act 1990.'
But specialist car lawyer Nick Freeman, nicknamed Mr. Loophole', studied the legislation and said the council was wrong to define urine as litter.
He told BBC Three Counties Radio: 'The very fact that there is no urine clearly indicates that urine is not really a piece of litter, or litter in any way.'
But the council insisted it was part of the legislation.
“The definition or classification of urination as littering or urinating in public as a criminal offense under the Public Order Act 1986 is not for us, as an individual council, to comment on or define,” the council said.
While he's glad the fine has been dropped, Mason says he “still wonders about all the other people who were fined in the same area.”
“I don't believe it is in the spirit of the law in this case to fine people for littering.”
He has said that in the future he will carry “a container” in his car in case he needs to pee while driving.