Brett Chamberlain, 50, of Tiverton, refueled his car for £ 60 with diesel at a Tesco petrol station and demanded payment of £ 100 end of 2021.
This caused a scandal because it was clear to everyone that such a coin was not in circulation, the story was silent about the words that were spoken during the scandal, but in the end the manager of Tesco in Exter called the police.
The uniformed men handcuffed Brett without hesitation and took him to a nearby police station, accusing him of trying to deceive the cashier and even running away from the gas station, although the latter was not quite so.
But what happened after Mr. Chamberlain’s lawyer came? He quickly explained that his client was a numismatist and that the coin could not be counterfeit. A quick search on the Internet showed that the coin in question with a value of 100 British pounds was a jubilee production and even had one – “Trafalgar Square £ 100 Coin”.
The lawyer for the arrested numismatist, who was actually an amateur and worked as a carpenter, quickly established that under the 1971 Mint Act, all coins minted by the British Mint were legal tender and even illegal not to be accepted as such.
The police made the arrest and their superiors were not very impressed by the curiosity of the lawyer, who actually proved that the arrest of Brett Chamberlain was absolutely illegal, and this is a big quarrel for the uniformed in democratic Britain.
The frowning behavior of the police and their refusal to write off Brett’s arrest led to a claim for compensation, which was approved by the court and the police in Exeter had to make an early Christmas present to the illegally detained numismatist worth 5,000 British pounds. In fact, they transferred them directly to his personal bank account without protesting.
