Will I be arrested?

[birchdale]

Every evening prior to recycling day, open boxes and bags are left on the road side ready for collection the next day. Lidless honey jars included!!! My ladies are early risers so.... on recycling day I have taken to wandering the streets at 5am collecting all foreign honey jars for proper disposal before my ladies can find a free breakfast.
Is it about time we educated the general public about the dangers of these sticky honey jars left lying around? An easy route for EFB/AFB etc into our colonies would then be stopped.

 

[tonybloke]

methinks that your local BKA could perhaps write a piece for the local press?

 

[Brosville]

Excellent thinking - I'd concur - good article fodder for the local rag (your local BBC radio station may be interested too, they're always looking for a good "story")

 

[Nomadickarl]

Yes you could be

Sorry to throw a spanner into the mix but in answer to your question the answer is a resounding YES. Some may see this as a technicality but it is still yes. You could be arrested for theft. This also applies to people 'skipping' i.e. taking items from a skip. Ask the owner, and assuming permission is given, then no problem. The problem you will have here is the owners may actually be the bin collection company (private or council) and not the householder so you would need their permission.

 

[porridge]

Well it may not be an offence if those items are abandoned. Even if an offence could be proven the CPS are very very unlikely to prosecute since it under the CPS guidelines, it has to be in the public interest to prosecute and it would obviously not be here. On the very rare occasions where a case is taken it usually results in the most appalling publicity for the CPS and the police. From memory, a couple were prosecuted for removing a hosepipe, a plant and a shoelace from a garden last year and they received compensation after the case collapsed.

I am enjoying the thought of hordes of beeks patrolling the street, sniffing out honey jars, though.

 

[Nomadickarl]

Words of advice

Well it may not be an offence if those items are abandoned. Even if an offence could be proven the CPS are very very unlikely to prosecute since it under the CPS guidelines, it has to be in the public interest to prosecute and it would obviously not be here. On the very rare occasions where a case is taken it usually results in the most appalling publicity for the CPS and the police. From memory, a couple were prosecuted for removing a hosepipe, a plant and a shoelace from a garden last year and they received compensation after the case collapsed.

I am enjoying the thought of hordes of beeks patrolling the street, sniffing out honey jars, though.

Porridge. You are correct in that the CPS may not run with it. However there are now things called adult cautions and 'tickets', both methods of dealing with low level crime and neither require the input of the CPS.

I like the use of the word abandoned. There is a lovely little piece of legislation that is titled 'theft by finding'. I think that covers 'abandoned'.

The question refers to could you be arrested for taking jars from bins, the answer is yes. The question was not 'Could I be prosecuted and convicted?' They are two seperate matters.

Just to be sure, if I found someone stealing a hosepipe and plant from my front garden I would expect them to be dealt with as per the law. THEFT! What next, my car stereo, wheels, anything that is moveable etc? Crime starts somewhere. It is very rare for someone to commit large scale crime on there first outing. They tend to start small and get bigger. If we don't get to these people early so that they can be punished and helped (carrot and stick works for me) then the tax payer ends up with a whole heap of trouble for many years to come.

 

[m100]

The council almost certainly won't give a stuff. They have their rules for what the obedient citizen has to put in their various waste bins and nothing will change that, not even an outbreak of AFB.

 

[porridge]

The old bill aren't interested in some beek taking a jar home to wash it up! And tbh I'm not sure that many serious habitual offenders start on their road to crime trying to perform a public service in relation to recycling.

In relation to the law, "theft by finding" does not form part of the Theft Acts. Abandonment does. Additionally if a person believes that the owner of the property would give their consent to the item being taken in the circumstances there is not dishonesty and theft will not be able to be proven.

If the OP is arrested lifting the jars from the recycling, he can have my legal services free of charge, I normally only prosecute but I'd made an exception for a fellow beek.

 

[hoomin_erra]

How can you be accused of permanently depriving them of the item if they have thrown it away?

 

[tonybloke]

Theft Act states to dishonestly obtain the property of another with the intention of permanently depriving them of it.

Technically - yes you could be arrested. In reality probably not. Recently on my way back from a surveillance job I caught two rogues climbing in and out of a Charity clothing bin stealling all of the designer items. I covertly filmed this, phoned the police who reluctantly came out and had to be practically forced to take down the names of the offenders. As a retired WPC I was totally disgusted.

Unless you have some busybody who reports you, I wouldn't worry. If arrested, tell them you didn't intend to permantly deprive the owner of the jars as you were going to give them back full of honey

erm, why use the term 'busybody' ?
didn't you act in exactly this manner?
are you a 'busybody' by your own definition?

 

[tonybloke]

thanks for the clarification

 

[keithgrimes]

stupid question probably, but is there any risk to bees from other imported 'sticky stuff'. Jam, marmalade etc.?

 

[tonybloke]

I use the term busybody as in someone who is nosey and twitches curtains. I caught two people committing a crime which isn't being a busybody but a witness.

So, if the plod / cps decide there that a crime has been committed, a busybody magically transforms into a witness?

 

[VEG]

Just take the jars and if caught say you were just going to wash them out and then put them back as they are a health risk to your bees.

 

[Midland Beek]

I just would not bother. Some wild bird feeding products contain honey. Search for 'Honey Dried Mealworms'.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

In my neck of the woods we are supposed to wash items like jars and plastic bottles before they go into the recycling..

 

[thurrock bees]

Just take the jars and if caught say you were just going to wash them out and then put them back as they are a health risk to your bees.

 

[Frisbee]

stupid question probably, but is there any risk to bees from other imported 'sticky stuff'. Jam, marmalade etc.?

No.......bees will not touch jam or marmalade.......that's why it is useful in wasp traps.

Frisbee

 

[birchdale]

After your good advice I will stop at once!
I will also stop clearing the road of the odd empty ali can, bottles, rubbish redistributed by the wind and other detritus just in case their owners want it back.

 

[keithgrimes]

Now then. I never knew bees don't like jam or marmalade. You lives and you learns.