Elderly man fined for leaving books outside Salvos store goes down swinging

An elderly Melburnian has taken aim at his local council after being fined for leaving a box of books outside a closed Salvation Army store.

Dan Alessio, 78, was fined $322 for littering after the Darebin council used CCTV footage from outside the Fairfield store to track him down.

The part-time hairdresser wrote to the council to apologise and ask for a warning.

“This was a genuine mistake and will never happen again, it was intended to be a donation,” he wrote.

The council showed no mercy and Mr Alessio, who says the situation has caused him anxiety, has now paid the fine.

But he’s going down swinging.

“I paid the fine because I thought ‘Alright, you can have your money, and I can have my satisfaction to let everybody know what happens when you try to do the right thing’,” he told Tony Jones 3AW Mornings.

Click PLAY to hear the full interview

3AW listeners have been evenly split on the matter on talkback, emails and the below Twitter poll.

Kate and Quarters are locked in a furious debate this morning: should you be fined for dumping books outside the op shop?

— 3AW Breakfast (@RossAndJohn) July 7, 2019