Having fun with fines

My friend Cecil likes to have a bit of fun. He turns almost every negative experience into a positive one. Fortunately he has a few quid

in the bank, so he will often spend money to have a laugh at the expense of the system. He's currently in a wrangle with the Congestion

Charge morons over an unpaid congestion charge fine. They've pushed the fine up to £150.00 and are threatening to remove his testicles if he doesn't pay up straight away. He merely writes back, referring to his previous letters, and tells them that he's already paid it. They are saying that his non-payment is about to be registered as an unpaid debt and will affect his credit rating. The problem is that they keep sending out computer generated letters and not replying to his defence.

If and when it does finally come to a court situation, his defence will be that he DID already pay the fine. The only thing is, he paid it BEFORE they issued it. One late summers morning, he decided he was not going to pay the basic charge of $8 on the following week when he went to London. So in anticipation of this 'crime', he sent them the £50 fine money straight away...he simply put the cheque in the envelope and sent it to them with a vague explanation but no address. They greedily banked the cheque thereby accepting his money. This meant he had already paid the fine before the fine was issued. Transport for London are now pursuing him for a higher amount of money he can't possibly owe. Apparently according to their bumph they have made no allowance for the possiblilty that someone may pay a fine before they get it - because it's so ridiculous.

So where do you think this will end ..... and why don't we all play this game to stuff up their system. It surely must be worth £50. Come to think of it ..... could we do this with parking fines too?

Turk182