UK: 5-year-old girl fined £150 by council for selling homemade lemonade

The girl’s father, Andre Spicer, said his daughter set up the stall in Mile End where thousands of music fans were on their way to Lovebox Festival at the weekend.

Spicer said after a short time trading, four enforcement officers from Tower Hamlets council walked over from the other side of the road to shut her stall down.

He said he expected the officers to “tell us to pack up and go home,” but instead “turned on their mobile camera and began reading from a big script explaining she did not have a trading licence.”

They then fined her £150 – reduced to £90 if she paid early.

“My daughter clung to me screaming ‘daddy, daddy, I’ve done a bad thing.’ She’s five,” Spicer said, according to the Evening Standard.

“She sobbed all the way home … she was very upset because she was proud of selling it, and this really soured the experience.”

Following the incident Spicer told his daughter he would apply for a permit for her but she said it was “too scary.”

The council has since apologized for what happened and cancelled the fine.

“We are very sorry that this has happened. We expect our enforcement officers to show common sense, and to use their powers sensibly. This clearly did not happen.”