Posted by
nepugh
19 yrs ago
a friend of mine was recently stopped in wanchai market and asked to pay a $1500 fine for dropping a cigarette butt, even though they were everywhere and other people were doing it. A case of wrong place at wrong time as i have never seen this even in 2 yrs of living in hk (possibly a policeman with lots of time on his hands).. OK, so it is the law, but the question is that if my friend does not pay (as they are not in HK anymore), would there be some mark against their passport, or would the police most likely write it off (it is a trivial offence after all) ? my friend may need to come back so is worried if their passport could be 'black-marked' ?
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I think the worst that could happen is that, should he return to HK, he would have to pay the fine.
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TC
19 yrs ago
Non-payment by the due date will see it go to court, but clearly your friend will not be there. In his/her absence he/she would be found guilty and a record made in the files that are accessible to immigration. So if he/she does ever return he/she should expect to be 'taken aside' on entry. Not a major concern and it could be cleared up with an honest explanation and a subsequent visit to the police station (or the court registrar's office) to pay the penalty.
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this is all bullsh*t. same thing happened with me. but ofcourse i am not tourist. outside tung chung mtr station 3 officers were standing and they saw me throughing cigret bud in ashtray but somehow it landed on floor. i was getting late for work. i thought anyuways its near ashtray i didnot boughtred to pick it up and ran towards mts station. suddenly i saw this dud coming up to me and saying you though a cigret bud on floor so you'll get a ticket. i told him i can pick it up no problems and i walked towards it and he called me again & said u dont have to pick it up i just pay this fine.i even requested hiim that i am getting late for meeting and this importent for me & if he can give me 1 chance. he clearly said No.
i was quit upset about this whole this so i called food and higne department. BIG MISTAKE, NO BUDY SPEAK ENGLISH. then what i had to pay the fine at the end. but this thing kept disturbing me.
so i went to my loyer and asked him he said if you are willing to pick it up then they dont have to fine you. they are there to fine but only those who dont understand & repeat the mistake.
dont worry about it nothing is going to happen to there passport or anything. but yes when they come back to hk they have to pay the fine.
i have to say this that we definetly have to do something but this as this is wrong image for a tourist of hong kong. in other words hong kong have a laws but it is without the laws
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TC
19 yrs ago
I think you're a bit wrong there. If you had bent down and picked it up immediately you missed the bin then there's no problem. But in deliberately running off after you saw it had missed the bin then you broke the law and deserve to pay the penalty. The laws are there for a purpose and everyone is expected to obey them - it's the same in every country. Perhaps the laws are not enforced to the same degree everywhere, but that's no excuse.
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In reply to rachna and Tc, it was very strange in our case as we did not run off, as you put it and did offer to pick it up, and even did so.. it was not known that it was an offence.
As Rachna says :
" i can pick it up no problems and i walked towards it and he called me again & said u dont have to pick it up i just pay this fine"
Some of these a*seholes just seem to be on power trips.. in any country, there is always the concept of a caution, why be so anal and force the fine, even though the tourist is leaving that day? why - so they get their quota and nice commission i expect.
sure a law is a law, but do the police have to be such a*seholes, even to tourists who did not know the law. Why not explain it to them?
did you know you can even get fined 1500 for putting something other than a cigarette in the top of the bins! what purpose does that solve! why not go and find some real criminals!
i wonder if a local had done this if they would have been fined, or if the policeman saw two gweillos and thought his luck was in. also treated my friend (who is spanish) very roughly, as if she could be a columbian or something (which she is not).. would even be tempted to complain about this guy if had his details
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Being a tourist does not absolve one from the law of a country.
You should also know that officers have been attacked by litterers, hence their demeanour.
And finally, try it in Singapore.
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Littering is an offence in every country!!!! I am shock to hear someone using not knowing littering is an offence as an excuse.
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i think i miss wrote it i ran towards mtr without knowing that cigret bud fell on floor. it was officer who told me that your cigter bud fell on floor. I THINK I AN CLEAR THIS TIME.
even if you want to copmplain about your case. to whome will you do it to food and higine department. AS I SAID BEFORE< NO BUDY SPEAK ENGLISH IN THAT DEPARTMENT . i have tried it many time. if you want u can try. i hope your luck is better then mine.
i think everybudy knows here that throughing rubish or litter is an offence. but throughing cigret bud not knowing it fell on the floor when you are rushing to you work is something different. I MEAN to say if that officer saw me throughing cigret bud in ashtray and by mistake it fell on floor without me knoing about it. he could have just worrned me or he could have just told me that this happened & it should not be repeated again.
thats the whole point. i am 200% sure if they found any local guy throughing rubish then they would do that because they are not gweillos. and they should fine gweillos buz we dont belong to this country ooooohhhhhhh sorry REGION.
today in afternoon i saw one chinees guy smoking cigreet in Wellcome at Bonham road and latter he through the same cigret bud in wellcom. and guess what wellcome manager even after seeing him didnot bother to stop him doing that.for 15 to 20 min he was inside. atleast he should have told him. but if it was a gweillo then it was a biiiiiggggg problem.
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TC
19 yrs ago
You obviously don't remember the case of the local woman (not a gweipo) who dropped her house key - and ended up in court for littering. I don't think race has anything to do with this - in fact if anything I think you'll find that the authorities are tougher on locals than they are on others. I do think, though, that the authorities (police, F&H officers etc etc) are inconsistent in their enforcement of the laws. How many times do I see people crossing the road against the lights in Central and a couple of police chatting amiably on the other side? (And the smoking story in Wellcome is a matter for the manager who won't complain to one of his customers unless many others force him to - it's the culture of not wanting to get involved. If it was a policeman who observed and didn't take action, though, I'd be a bit more concerned.)
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I can sympathise with your friend but I cannot offer moral support for your wish to help your friend avoid to pay the fine.
The fine has been on the book for quite some time, and I for one welcomed it as a means to address the littering problem.
Don't take that problem too lightly - just visit a country park and see how the locals treat Mother Nature on one of their days of recreation!
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A tourist who does not know about the law, has no respect to the law and the law enforcers, break the law, moan and b1tch about the law and the law enforcers, refused to pay the fine and left the country.... Just stay out and don't come to Hong Kong, the place doesn't like such visitor, and such alike is not welcome to Hong Kong. Period!
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