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26/09/2005
Council tax protest pensioner imprisoned
A retired social worker has become the first female pensioner to be jailed for refusing to pay her council tax.
Sylvia Hardy, 73, from Exeter, Devon, was jailed for seven days on Monday at Exeter Magistrates’ Court, for failing to pay her council tax arrears from last year. She had been given 56 days to settle the bill in full in June, or face the prospect of spending a week in jail.
The pensioner, who owed £53.71, refused to pay the money, calling the tax “daylight robbery”. She told the court that the increase in council tax had been 18.5% in one year and 10% in another, while her occupational pension increased by only 1.7% each year.
However, the Chairman of Exeter Magistrates’ Court, Louis Crowden, told Miss Hardy that she was not a ‘martyr’ and had been given every opportunity to pay the arrears but had refused to do so. He said: “If everyone paid their debts on the basis of what they thought appropriate, this country would descend into anarchy.”
Miss Hardy was accompanied to court on Monday by supporters, who reportedly shouted “pompous ass” and “shame” at the bench.
Miss Hardy is not the first pensioner to be jailed for refusing to pay her council tax. Alfred Ridley, 71, a retired vicar from Towcester, Northants, was jailed for 28 days earlier this month for refusing to pay his council tax arrears.
(KMcA/SP)
Sylvia Hardy, 73, from Exeter, Devon, was jailed for seven days on Monday at Exeter Magistrates’ Court, for failing to pay her council tax arrears from last year. She had been given 56 days to settle the bill in full in June, or face the prospect of spending a week in jail.
The pensioner, who owed £53.71, refused to pay the money, calling the tax “daylight robbery”. She told the court that the increase in council tax had been 18.5% in one year and 10% in another, while her occupational pension increased by only 1.7% each year.
However, the Chairman of Exeter Magistrates’ Court, Louis Crowden, told Miss Hardy that she was not a ‘martyr’ and had been given every opportunity to pay the arrears but had refused to do so. He said: “If everyone paid their debts on the basis of what they thought appropriate, this country would descend into anarchy.”
Miss Hardy was accompanied to court on Monday by supporters, who reportedly shouted “pompous ass” and “shame” at the bench.
Miss Hardy is not the first pensioner to be jailed for refusing to pay her council tax. Alfred Ridley, 71, a retired vicar from Towcester, Northants, was jailed for 28 days earlier this month for refusing to pay his council tax arrears.
(KMcA/SP)
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