man arrested for stealing rubbish, page-16

I wonder if someone tripped over the hard rubbish and sued the council, would the council accept responsibility or would said rubbish suddenly still belong to the owner.

Further, getting back to this case, I can just imagine "Your Honour - The council claims it accepts "hard rubbish" I can easily prove that the items I retrieved were not rubbish at all but were quite valuable!"

Or: "Has the owner furnished to the prosecution a full and detailed list of the items placed on the kerbside to prove that the items I retrieved were in fact part of the contractual agreement between the owner and the council."

Bureaucracy gone mad!