Police officers paid £150m in bonuses for doing their job

More than £150million is paid to police officers every year for what Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation, describes as “doing your duty.”

Five officers at Northumbria Police, the force which conducted the hunt for the gunman Raoul Moat, shared performance-related bonuses last year of £115,500.

In Durham, one chief picked up an £18,700 bonus in 2009-10. In South Wales another received £14,300, and in South Yorkshire four senior officers shared £69,000.

Half of the country’s 144,000 officers received an average of £2,200 each in payments last year, totalling an estimated £145 million.

The payments were introduced by New Labour in 2002.

70 year old widow threatened with £2,500 fine for smoking a cigarette

Sheila Martin, a 70 year old widow living in Oldbury, has been warned that she could be prosecuted and face a fine of £2,500, plus costs, for smoking a cigarette at a bus stop.

While waiting for the number 446 bus on May 26, 2010, Mrs Martin decided to enjoy a cigarette.

During the course of enjoying here cigarette, she was approached by an official from Sandwell Council, who issued her with a £75 fine for 'littering', due to some ash falling from Mrs Martin's cigarette end.

She said: "I still can't believe what happened. I was just sat at a bus stop quietly enjoying my cigarette and from nowhere a warden appeared and accused me of littering. I couldn't believe it, I was only smoking a cigarette. It is one of the few things I have left that I can afford to buy myself. I can't work out why the council would be so vindictive over such a petty matter. I'm so upset and angry."

Mrs Martin refused to pay the £75 fine, and has now the elderly widow has been issued with a 'Final Warning' from Sandwell Councils Prosecution Team, threatening her with prosecution, and a fine of up to £2,500.

Mrs Martin has vowed to fight on, and has stated that she would rather go to prison than pay this ridiculous charge.

Last year, an official from Sandwell Council issued a mother with a £75 fine, for feeding ducks with her son in a park.