A persistent fly-poster was ordered to pay fines and costs of £2,230 by York Magistrates on Tuesday 9 April 2019.

George Rowland Tucker (of Salsview Fairpark, Tudworth Road, Hatfield, Doncaster), owner of GR Tucker & Sons, a family-run funfair, pleaded guilty to 15 offences of fly posting in the City of York in October 2018.

His funfair was located at Stirling Road, Clifton Moor, York and was open from 16 – 23 October 2018. Posters advertising the event were tied to wooden boards and lamp posts and fences next to roads throughout the city in the week leading up to the event. No prior permission was sought from City of York Council to put up the posters and the business failed to take them down when warned by Council Enforcement Officers.

Council officers photographed and removed each poster and served a fixed penalty notice for each found. Mr Tucker attended an interview under caution when he was shown the evidence. He confirmed that 15 out of the 64 posters found were put up by his business. However, he failed to pay any of the fixed penalty notices and so was prosecuted.

At York Magistrates Court, Mr Tucker offered mitigation that the posters had been put up by a business rival to get him into trouble. The court issued him a fine of £1,200 with a court surcharge of £30 and costs of £1,000.

People who fix posters or advertisements without the landowners’ permission are given fixed penalty notices of £75 per sign to be paid within 14 days.