Pet shop owner fined £1,000 and told to wear an electronic tag for selling a goldfish to boy aged 14

Buying a goldfish at a pet shop used to be an innocent childhood pleasure. But an elderly pet shop owner has told how she was 'entrapped' into selling a goldfish to a 14-year-old schoolboy, then warned she could face jail. She had breached a law introduced in 2006 which bans selling live fish to anyone under 16.

After a prosecution estimated to have cost taxpayers £20,0000, Joan Higgins, 66, a great-grandmother who has never been in trouble before, has been forced to wear a tag on her ankle like a common criminal and given a seven-week curfew.



Her son, Mark, 47 was also handed a fine and ordered to carry out 120 hours unpaid work in the community. Magistrates have been accused of using a hammer to crack a nut in their bid to enforce the animal welfare laws.

The court ruling means she is unable to babysit her great-grandson at his home, attend bingo sessions with her sister or enjoy a Rod Stewart concert after tickets were bought for her by her TV actor nephew Will Mellor. Her son said: 'I think it's a farce. What gets me so cross is that they put my mum on a tag - she's nearly 70, for goodness sake. She's a great grandma so she won't be able to babysit a new born baby. You would think they have better things to do with their time and money.'