We were always under the impression that taking stuff out of skips for re-use was OK in the eyes of the law – it’s just other people’s rubbish, right?
Well…this certainly isn’t the case for a poor jobless man who was arrested and charged after he took two old bicycle frames out of a skip.
Kevin Gilligan, 48, thought they had been thrown away and did not belong to anyone, said his solicitor Sally Howard.
But items in a skip belong either to the person who put them there, or to the owner of the skip.
Steven Ovenden, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the cycle frames had been returned to their owner, the National Railway Museum, and presumably been put back in the skip.
Gilligan pleaded guilty to stealing two bicycle frames and was given a 12-month conditional discharge.
He was also ordered to pay a £50 fine because he was already on a conditional discharge for an offence of graffiti, £85 prosecution costs and a £15 Government-imposed victim surcharge.
Mr Ovenden said a member of the public spotted Gilligan and a second man removing the frames from the skip and called police, who caught Gilligan nearby.
Mrs Howard said Gilligan was made redundant after 18 years working for a portable cabin and container company and had been unable to get alternative work. She said he had fallen in with the wrong crowd and was now trying to stay away from them and concentrate on his angling interests.
Poor bloke was only trying to find a hobby when he saw the bikes! Let’s hope fishing is a safer option!
(Source The Press)
