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Shopkeeper faces £8k fine after drinking carrot juice from a beer can in 'no alcohol zone'

 The High Court in London - Toby Melville/Reuters
The High Court in London - Toby Melville/Reuters

A teetotal shopkeeper who claimed he was testing the feasibility of a no-alcohol zone after being caught drinking carrot juice from a beer can is facing £8,000 in legal costs.

Two police officers noticed Alex Snowball, 33, sipping from a Foster's can outside his second-hand electronics store in the Frogmoor area of High Wycombe, Bucks, in December 2018.

At the time, the area was subject to a ban on public drinking and people having open alcohol containers in the street amid a police crackdown on anti-social behaviour in its town centre.

Mr Snowball refused to hand over the lager tin or reveal its contents when asked to by the officers and was given a £60 fixed penalty notice (FPN) as a result.

Shortly after being handed the fine, he poured out the liquid, showing it to be freshly squeezed carrot juice.

Defending his actions, Mr Snowball explained the stunt was to test how well the police knew the rules they had been tasked with enforcing in the no-alcohol zone of town.

However, the police insisted a crime had still been committed and would not revoke the fine.

Mr Snowball refused to pay and appeared before High Wycombe magistrates' court last December for an alleged breach of a Public Spaces Protection Order.

The judge acquitted the shopkeeper, finding that the requirement for Mr Snowball to hand over the beer can fell away when he proved it did not contain alcohol.

However, Buckinghamshire County Council successfully appealed against this decision and the case was brought to The High Court for review.

During the hearing, it emerged how Mr Snowball had wanted to “expose” the officers as being ineffective at upholding the areas no-drinking rules, as he felt like a victim of a “long campaign” by the council and police, who had allegedly harassed his customers.

Though accepting he had been “deliberately awkward” in the interaction, Mr Snowball claimed the senior responding officer knew he was teetotal, and the other constable did not “seem interested” in checking if the orange liquid was alcoholic.

The council argued it was irrelevant what liquid the can contained as the offence of refusing to hand it to police when asked was committed before Mr Snowball revealed it was carrot juice.

Agreeing with this contention, Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing overturned the previous magistrates' decision to acquit.

Mr Snowball was ordered to pay the majority of the council's £10,000 legal bill for the case- around £8,000 in total.

Following the verdict, he told The Daily Telegraph: “The legal system clearly is in need of reform, you have an individual, such as myself, who is being subjected to illegal and immoral activities.

“In the appeal it has been confirmed that I did not commit the offence but the appeal was based purely on the belief I committed the offence even though it was accepted I did not. Clearly this is not in the interest of natural justice.”

In response to the hearing, a Buckinghamshire County Council spokesperson added: “Mr Snowball tried to get round the public spaces protection order by treating it with contempt and by testing our enforcement to the limits.

“The verdict of the court supports the strong action we took and more importantly, sends out a clear signal that we are serious about tackling anti-social behaviour, whatever form it might take.”