Nurse Fined £150 For Fly-tipping After Giving Away Free Apples
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A nurse who left free apples outside her home was left feeling "disheartened" after the council fined her for fly-tipping.
Lydia Farrell, 33, was left shocked after a good deed landed her with a £150 fine from the council.
The nurse has left a bunch of free apples outside her home in west London with a sign, after fearing the garden-grown fruit would go to waste.
However, Lydia was horrified to get a fine for £150 through the post from Ealing Council, with a warning she could go to court if she didn't pay.
"Feeling disheartened.....the council has fined us £150 for 'fly tipping' because we've been leaving free apples outside our house in cardboard boxes (because people were taking the pots!)," she wrote on Facebook.
"A good deed unfortunately gone wrong."
Speaking about how she felt about receiving the letter, Lydia told Metro.co.uk: "Just very disheartened. Especially when I have to walk past all the real fly tipping every day at the end of my road."
She added: "We'd been away for a few days and not only did we come home to that fine but also someone had forced entry into our back garden and broken our fence.
"So two real crimes committed by other people and I'm the only one who gets fined.
"I just felt it was quite sad that the council would fine me for doing a good deed."
Luckily, thanks to a huge backlash, the local council withdrew their fine and apologised to Lydia.
A spokesperson for Ealing Council said: "The council recognises that the spirit of the residents' actions was with good intentions. We will be in touch with Ms Farrell to rescind the fine.
"Our priority is to make sure the borough is clean and litter free and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused."