Should someone be allowed to pay a fine for someone else without their consent?

Question

In England, a woman was sent to jail for refusing to pay her rates. A stranger paid her fine for her so she was released. The woman had the money to pay her rates - she refused on principle and said she wanted to serve her sentence rather than give any more money to the council as she thought they were not doing their jobs properly.

Surely someone has the right to say that they do not want another person to pay their fines? There could be lots of reasons for this - conscience being one. Another could be that it is someone who is trying to gain control of another person. And it doesn't stop there - what is to stop someone else paying your bills (as nice as that sounds!) - but was doing it because they wanted something from you? Would you like someone else knowing your business - and doing something you don't want them to?

So do you think people should be allowed to pay fines for someone else, going against definite instructions to the contrary? What gives them the right to do so?

When did Jesus ever pay someone else's fine?
Nobody knows who did it - it was a stranger!

The lady concerned had the money - she was not paying her rates in protest at the living conditions around her. Please see mcqlfc's question on council tax to understand why she was not paying!

Also please note that I wasn't complaining about the niceness of the stranger paying the bill, it was the rights and wrongs of doing so when specifically instructed not to.

What I want to know is whether it is okay to pay a stranger's fines if they have been told not to? Should the person whose fines they are have the right to refuse to let someone else pay them - for whatever reason?

Answer 1

Everyone has the right to stand by their principles. Even if your fine is paid by another, your position has not changed.YOU still stood your ground. If someone pays bills to receive something from you then I hope you made yourself clear before hand. Otherwise I hope you like your "Sugar Mama/Daddy". As far as the question, "Would you like someone YOU are making your business public. This opens you up to all types of people/problems. I think people should be allowed to pay fines for someone else,even if it goes against definite instructions to the contrary because your morals/standards are not compromised. However, if you STRONGLY need the fine to stay "on the books" then make that Publicly clear. What gives them the right to do so? Freedom does.

Jesus paid the ultimate price for our SINS, not fines. SINS are not fines. Fines are a monetary dues for being stupid, while sins are crimes against GOD. If you fail to understand the difference, that explains a lot.

Answer 2

the man in question was on tv this morning, he said he paid it because 3 months in jail was too long for a women of the ladies age to spend in prison. The lady in question had the money in a holding account and coul of paid her council tax at any time, she was refusing to pay it out of principle, as the council she feels dont regenerate the money properly and her st is used for prostitution and drugs, she is a kind women who gives these people who squat in her st sandwiches and drinks, but she is asking the council to something about the needles and general state of the place. In answer to your question anyone who followed the story knew this lady mrs rooney did not want any well wisher paying her bill, it was a protest, this man should not have paid it miss rooney herself has said he should have given the money to charity, what right was it of his to pay her bill without her consent she is now behind her next bill by 3 months she is hoping to go back to jail, so let her get on with it.

Answer 3

In England, I thought that they already could. Didn't someone pay an old womans' Poll Tax recently so that she wouldn't have to go to jail. ( You have referred to this)
Maybe there is a technical difference between paying someone's debts for them and paying the subsequent fine for not paying that debt.

Remembering that a fine is a punishment. If someone pays it for you then you are no longer being punished. I agree with you, however, that if somenone is refusing to pay a debt, or in any other way acting out of principle, then they should be allowed to stop the payment. The State will grab all the money it can, however.

Answer 4

First off,- No one can gain control of you. You would have to give them control. No matter how many bills or fines they pay, you decide who is in control. Obviously, this person must already know your business, if they know who and what to pay. When my ex husband and I split up, (2 years after) I found out that he had 3 traffic warrents in the town we lived in. He and I weren't exactly friends, but I do wish him the best in life, so I paid them. I still haven't spoken a word about it to him, because I did that on my own. I know he's grateful, just as I would be, if I were in that situation. There are too many times in this life, when people do mean things,... if someone does something nice for you, enjoy it. It doesn't happen very often & you decide how to show your gratitude.

Answer 5

I think that maybe a benefactor was fabricated, to stop the public outcry at an old woman being put in prison. Now the council that did nothing with the Poll Tax that they recieved can go about is's business, with no Grandmothers in jail to remind people of how poorly the public funds are being used...

x x x

Answer 6

What baffles me is why a stranger would want to pay off someone else's fine?! I don't think it's right, if she was prepared to suffer the consequences of her actions then so be it. She was obviously protesting and trying to maintain her stance that she was dissatisfied with the council so she should have been allowed to continue to do that.

The paying off of her fine defeated her object in trying to make a point.

Answer 7

yeah y not ? what if someone just wanted to do a nice thing for a friend less fortunate and not embarras them ? or make the person feel like they have to pay they back when they wont even know who paid and say the persons a bad money manager like a friend of mine i would rather put a 100 on a bill of hers than give her a hundred because it would just be spent on cigs and clothes and not on important things like a bill and i could do it without her knowing and it would be like like an altuistic thing . because i believe theres more god out there than bad and i think that people need to be less suspicious and just try to love thier fellow peoples maybe just maybe we could all be nice again

Answer 8

I know where you're coming from but was it right for her to withhold the money in the first place?

We all probably feel we have grounds to short pay the local council, God only knows I would like to. They deliver poor value for money in my opinion but I reflect it at the Polling booth, and no where else. Perhaps if more people voted it wouldnt come to this to start with.

Answer 9

it depends:
1) if the penalised has the money to pay
in such a situation he/she should pay themselves. This is, I think, due to two reasons:
(i) the fine serves the purpose of warning the perpetrator, rather than adding to the revenue.\
(ii) the perpetrator, as in the said case, may be thinking of making a statement, which she should hasve aright to do, a right which will be refused by someone else paying his/her fine.

2) if the penalised is less-previleged
then, payment can be done in behalf.

Answer 10

What makes human beings uniquely different than any living species on this planet is that we understand the concept of giving and receiving a gift. The noblest of this giving and receiving is when it is commuted through random acts of kindness. Paying that person's fine was an act of random kindness displaying the true essence of humanity.