Good Old Boy / Gal

A DEFIANT war veteran who was jailed for refusing to pay his council tax incurred more than the wrath of a local authority yesterday.

As Richard Fitzmaurice, 75, stood his ground before King’s Lynn magistrates, his family rallied round him — apart from his wife, Rita, 76, who was left fuming at home.

“He’s an idiot,” she said. “He has rung me from the cells and he’s full of himself. But he has put me through a lot and at my age I can’t be doing with it.
“I’m certainly not going to visit him. I can’t drive. I depend on him. I’m really rather angry with him. He thinks it’s going to be a laugh. He’s a silly old . . . oh, I nearly sweared.”

Mrs Fitzmaurice stayed in the couple’s £300,000, three-bedroomed home as her husband arrived at court. “I’ve brought a spare pair of pants and my shaving things. I am quite prepared to go to prison,” he said.
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“The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I discovered the leader of the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, John Dobson, had legal fees of £23,000 paid with local taxpayers’ money. I am wilfully refusing to pay the tax.”

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