A 5-year-old
girl was left in tears after council officers shut down her lemonade stand and
issued her a fine.
The little
girl got herself busy selling lemonade to revelers going to a festival in east
London when she had her stand shut down by council officers. The girl and her
father, Andre Spicer, were slammed with a £150 fine after the enforcement
officers read out a lengthy legal document.
Mr. Spicer,
who is a college professor, and his little daughter were given the fine for
‘trading without a permit’ because they set up a makeshift stall near their
home in Mile End.
When
contacted by reporters, Tower Hamlets Council guaranteed it would cancel the
fine immediately, adding that it would contact the family to tender an apology.
According to
a spokesman for the council, it had expected its enforcement officers to apply
common sense when exerting their authority.
The little
girl’s dad, who has been furious over the incident, has tagged the decision
made by the officers as an ‘over-zealous way of applying the rules’.
Spicer said,
‘It’s not like she was trying to make a massive profit, this is just a
five-year-old kid trying to sell lemonade.’ He said his girl cried all the way
back home and kept on telling him, 'I’ve done a bad thing.’
He said she
was very upset because she was so proud to engage herself with selling lemonade
to people, ‘and this really soured the experience.’ The angry dad observed that
little kids involving in things like this are common in America.
He said,
‘When I shared our experience with my cousin who lives in Chicago, he told me
this would be a national scandal.’
However, a
spokeswoman for the local authority has affirmed their regret over what
happened saying that the fine will be canceled immediately. ‘We will be
contacting Professor Spicer and his daughter to apologize,’ she added.
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