UK officials are issuing tickets for increasingly minor incidents such as driving through a puddle and placing a for sale sign in a car window. In on incident, Jason Evans, 34, was driving on a Somerset road that had been flooded by two inches of water. Although he slowed to 15 MPH in second gear, he splashed water on the jeans of an angered workman who had been busy clearing a drainage ditch on the side of the road.

A police patrolman behind Evans witnessed the crime, documented the incident with photographs and tailed Evans for two miles. Police and prosecutors successfully convicted Evans of "inconsiderate driving" in a court of law, despite Evans' plea that it was an accident and he was sorry it happened. The court collected £150 (US $265) in fines.

In Alton, Celia Pearce, 48, received a £30 ticket after she parked her Peugeot 106 car in a municipal lot with a "For Sale" sign in her window. The East Hampshire District Council has a ban on commercial activity in the lot.

"If this is classed as selling, then isn't a double glazing contractor parked in a car park breaking the same law by inviting people to phone the telephone number on the side of his van for a quote?" Pearce told the Daily Mirror. "It's bureaucracy gone mad."