Woman, 81, jailed for not paying rates

An elderly spinster yesterday began a two-week prison sentence for owing £2,700 in rates.

Ellen Copson, 81, was jailed by magistrates at Droitwich, Worcestershire, on Thursday, having been prosecuted for non-payment of £13 a week business rates on premises she owns below the high street flat she has lived in all her life - one shop is let, but the other is empty. The jailing brought protests from local traders, who yesterday festooned Droitwich high street with "Free Nellie" posters.

Miss Copson had claimed she could not afford to pay out of her £87 a week income, and also maintained it was unfair to charge the rate while one shop was empty. She owed £2,726, covering 1995 to 1999, and had been prosecuted by Wychavon district council, responsible for collecting the rates as an agent for the inland revenue's valuation office.

Her neighbour shopkeeper, Simon Barugh, of ETU International hair products, said she could not solve her problem by selling the shop, because property in the area was unsaleable.

"I like and admire her. She is a little stubborn and very determined. I am shocked by the sentence. I didn't believe the courts would go to that extreme."

Mr Barugh talked to her yesterday by phone at Brockhill women's prison, near Redditch. "Nellie's a tough nut," he said. "But I think it may be more traumatic for her than she's letting on. Surely educated and responsible people could come up with something that would have enabled her to still be at home tonight."

Tom Lymer, a butcher, said: "We can't believe what has happened. She is in the twilight years of her life and should not have to put up with the stress." Rosemary Wright, who runs a nearby fish and chip shop, said: "There's an absolute furore in the town right now. I think the council should go shoot themselves."

The district council's managing director, Sid Pritchard, said: "The council is as unhappy as everyone else at the thought of an 81-year-old woman being sent to prison. We did absolutely everything we could to avoid Miss Copson's situation coming to this.

"Despite our best efforts, and those of the court, she repeatedly refused to help us to find a solution."