A mum was left in shock after she received a fine for "incorrectly disposing of fast food", after her baby dropped a cracker in a supermarket car park.
Danielle Botcher, 28, from Basildon, says she was left "angry and speechless" when she was approached by three council officers in a Tesco car park after her 18-month-old daughter Mia accidentally dropped the snack.
The officers said Mia had "incorrectly disposed of fast food" before issuing Danielle with the £100 fine.
The mum-of-two explained: "I had pushed my trolley back to my car and when I went to get my daughter out of the seat, I noticed she had dropped a few crackers into the trolley.
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"I saw the crackers in the trolley so I picked them up. I never saw the one on the floor, why would I leave one?
"I'd put my daughter and shopping bags in the car and was about to shut my door as a woman knocked on my window. She told me she was a Basildon Council enforcement officer and that she saw my daughter drop a biscuit on the floor that I didn't pick up."
Danielle immediately apologised, explaining she hadn't realised, but she claims the officers agreed she had ignored the cracker.
"I didn't know what to think. I was in shock, I thought it must be a joke, you would expect hidden cameras for how ridiculous the whole situation was. It took me a while to get my head around what was going on and when I got home I was very upset," she continued.
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"We were really panicked that we would have to pay it. I was frantically searching on Google and all the information I could find was saying we could end up in court. It was really frightening, £100 is a lot of money to us.
"The whole incident has left me really upset and now I'm paranoid when I am out shopping with the children."
After contacting the council, Danielle was later told that the fine would be overturned.
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"The whole episode has been really stressful because the onus was on me to challenge it. Life with two young children is busy enough without this unnecessary upset," she said.
"I would tell anyone in my position to definitely fight it. I am happy it has been cancelled but it should never have happened in the first place. The people employed to do this job need better training, they should focus their efforts on people who throw litter around and fly tippers who don't care - not a baby who accidentally dropped her snack."
A Basildon Borough Council spokesperson said: "We are really sorry for this mistake and any inconvenience caused. As soon as it was brought to our attention the Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) was cancelled.
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"National Enforcement Solutions (NES) carry out patrols to prevent fly tipping and littering across the whole borough. Since the trial began last year officers have undertaken 459 investigations of fly tipped waste across the borough.
"There have also been a further 136 hours of out of hours monitoring and investigation undertaken."
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