The price of tomatoes
A man in Dudley, West Midlands, was accused of soliciting when police identified a known sex worker in his car, while he was withdrawing £20 from a cash machine. He claimed that the lady in question was simply going to show him where to buy tomatoes, and that the money that he had withdrawn was to make that very purchase.
But the filth were having none of it, for they are not as stupid as they might sometimes appear.
Our officers and the courts saw through his lies and [Ikhlaq] has now been found guilty.
Stacey Paterson, Walsall Police Constable
Huzzah for justice!
Muhammad Ikhlaq was fined £400 and ordered to pay an additional £665 in costs. You can buy an awful of tomatoes for that kind of cash…but where would you go to buy them?
There was time when you could ask a friendly policeman. But, these days, they're too busy spying on innocent people going about their daily business to be of any real service to the community.
At the current retail price, £20 would buy around 10kg of tomatoes. Mr Ikhlaq is quite clearly the aficionado. Don't get me wrong, I love tomatoes, and use a lot in cooking and salads, but I'd have difficulty in shifting 10kg of them.
His fine and costs would've bought him half a tonne of the fruits, at which point he could start a wholesale business.