It seems that there are still some people with a slightly spotty understanding of the law. One man in West Midlands of England, for example, is more familiar with the Sale of Goods Act than that whole, pesky solicitating-prostitutes-is-illegal thing. He claims that he saw a woman’s ad for her “services” in the paper, contacted her and arranged a meeting, then called the police upon meeting her, judging her to be less attractive than she had advertised.
It’s not hard to feel sorry for the guy. I mean, who hasn’t felt ripped off when the hooker they wanted to hire wasn’t as hot as they’d hoped? Then, you know, tried to get that woman arrested for… having too much confidence? While prostitution in and of itself is not illegal in Britain, many related activities like “solicitation in a public place” are, so probably best not call the police about it.
The man is quoted as saying “Beforehand I have asked for a description of her – give me an honest description, otherwise when I get there I’m not going to use your services… She was angry – she thinks I owe her a living or something.” When police told him that not only does the Sale of Goods Act not apply to services, but also that the goods in question have to be legal, the man announced he wanted to come down to the station until the matter was sorted out to his satisfaction. He was dissuaded.
It does make you wonder what he thought the police were going to do for him.
Don’t worry, the matter was cleared up quickly. They managed to focus on the important thing: that the man in question was wasting police time, and in the future he really shouldn’t complain about his illegal extracurriculars not going as planned. The police sent him a letter warning them about wasting their time in the future.
If you’d like to hear the full “emergency” call you can head over to The Daily Mail and give it a listen.
(via Daily Mail, image via Ingmar Zahorsky)
Meanwhile in related links
- Sorry prostitutes – LinkedIn won’t be your pimp anymore
- German city introduces prostitution parking machines
- Prostitutes use Facebook to find customers
