Can anyone educate the Police?

Sainty

Nomad
Jan 19, 2009
388
1
St Austell
I can help you with what is an offence. Theft Act 1968 S4(3) states:

A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers,
fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession
of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial
purpose.
For purposes of this subsection ‘mushroom’ includes any fungus, and ‘plant’ includes any
shrub or tree.

So Tommy commits an offence under the theft act. However, there may be offences under the Countryside Act as has been mentioned above.

Martin
 
I can help you with what is an offence. Theft Act 1968 S4(3) states:

A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers,
fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession
of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial
purpose.
For purposes of this subsection ‘mushroom’ includes any fungus, and ‘plant’ includes any
shrub or tree.

So Tommy commits an offence under the theft act. However, there may be offences under the Countryside Act as has been mentioned above.

Martin

Sounds like you know your stuff Martin, so I'll go with you on that!
I thought it was going to be one of those "they're all guilty" situations, like Murder On The Orient Express (whoops apologies if you haven't seen read / seen it).
 
Last edited:

Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,540
705
Knowhere
Dunno, but my brother was done many years ago for picking a tulip from a flower bed in town and eating it. Gained a certain notoriety in the paper at the time as a rather silly case.

The reality of the law, is that as a system it is accumulative but does not respond to any law of nature (think Canute) there are many statutes that are mutually contradictory simply because nobody has ever examined it properly.

The reality, as the majority of law breakers know is the 11th commandment "Thou shalt not be found out"
 

jojo

Need to contact Admin...
Aug 16, 2006
2,630
4
England's most easterly point
for picking a tulip from a flower bed in town and eating it

Blimey, that was a heavy duty crime, worth bringing the full force of the law onto the culprit..:rolleyes:

I wonder how many answers the officers are giving on the police site? They should be up on it, because they are supposed to know enough of the laws to be able to discerne what is and what isn't not illegal and therefore what and what not to act on?
 

TeeGeeBee

Tenderfoot
Nov 30, 2009
67
0
South Lakes
...
On the way to the forest SAM sees some daisy flowers growing on persons garden and goes to pick them up. She is stopped in her tracks when a dog starts barking so she changes her mind.
Is there a marked boundary to the garden? And are the flowers over hanging said boundary? But even if the flowers overhang the landowner has ownership of the plants. You could cut them on the outside of the boundary but you must offer the landowner first dibbs on the off-cuts.

Meanwhile MARY is picking dandelions from the side of the road and intends to use them to make wine for her Mother.
The verge may well belong to the council and thus the removal of growth is not permited without prior permission but I doubt the Police or anyone else would fuss over a matter such as this. I'd be more worried about consumption of the heavy metals & particulates coating the flowers.

TOMMY is looking for leaves and acorns on the grass surrounding the road
I think you can freely collect acorns? And 2009 or thereabout is a 'Mast Year' for Oaks.

and RICHARD has just uprooted a wild daffodil which he intends to plant in his garden at home.
Wild Daffs though becoming more rare are not presently on the 'Wild Flowers' protected list.

They enjoy a walk around the forest and on the way back, TOMMY decides to pick wild mushrooms which he intends to exchange half of them to his next door neighbor for some collectors stickers.
Don't know but should imagine you'd be ok on this one. Unless the forest is owned and or is in an area of protection. In which case, you would need special permossion to forage within said area. Will he have to declare his barter?

I could be wildly wrong about some of this.

TGB
 
Last edited:

Tony

White bear (Admin)
Admin
Apr 16, 2003
24,328
1
2,041
54
Wales
www.bushcraftuk.com
It's lovely to see how quickly people can turn things into a bashing thread :deadhorse:

Good question and some good answers, questions like this are good because they make us think about our actions
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
Found a kind of interesting link.
The link has other links to sites like English Heritage's best practice guidelines for collecting fungi, that kind of thing.

cheers,
Toddy
 
Blimey, that was a heavy duty crime, worth bringing the full force of the law onto the culprit..:rolleyes:

I wonder how many answers the officers are giving on the police site? They should be up on it, because they are supposed to know enough of the laws to be able to discerne what is and what isn't not illegal and therefore what and what not to act on?


Ah but it gets another potential Criminal into teh Police DNA data base goodjob
 

nigeltm

Full Member
Aug 8, 2008
484
16
55
south Wales
It's lovely to see how quickly people can turn things into a bashing thread :deadhorse:

Unfortunately you're spot on there Tony.

Over on their forum there are often posts and comments by people not well disposed to the Police. So over time many of the officers on there have become very cynical when it comes to posts and are very sensitive. A few times it's been suggested I'm a troll because I've asked questions that could be taken the wrong way.

To those of you having a bit of a dig, just remember that it is the management of the Police services and the political masters who set the agenda for the front line officers. The Police themselves often get frustrated at what they now have to do to be fully accountable and to satisfy what the politicians think the public demand (or at least what'll get them a few extra votes!).
 

timboggle

Nomad
Nov 1, 2008
456
8
Hereford, UK
Found a kind of interesting link.
The link has other links to sites like English Heritage's best practice guidelines for collecting fungi, that kind of thing.

cheers,
Toddy


heck Mary, I know the Scots are meant to be tight, but surely you can let us all have a look :lmao:
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE