So he neatly packaged his food scraps in a carrier bag and deposited it in a public bin.
A few days later a letter arrived announcing he had been fined £75 - for misusing' the bin by putting domestic refuse in it.
Council snoopers traced him after rummaging through the bag's contents, in which they found an envelope addressed to him.
Yesterday 84-year-old Mr Richards, of Boston, Lincolnshire, said: "I've been fined for putting my rubbish in a bin and that's just ludicrous.
"The council told me I was flytipping. But I've never thrown litter in my life.
"Lots of people do what I did. My bin bags are collected fortnightly, and I have only a very small back yard.
"It would be intolerable to keep rotting food waste indoors for a fortnight until the next collection rolls around.
"Mr Richards reluctantly paid the fine after being warned if he did not pay in 14 days the penalty would double and he could face a fine of up to £2,500 if he took the case to court.
The retired journalist added: "The council say that litter is what you carry around with you and that what I put in the bin wasn't litter. But it's a very vague definition."
A Boston Council spokesman said: "Public litter bins are for everyone to use. If one is repeatedly filled by an individual with their domestic waste it creates a problem."
Mr Richards, who runs the Apostrophe Protection Society to promote the correct use of the punctuation mark, was fined days after the council launched a campaign urging members of the public to make more use of litter bins.
Readers of a local newspaper are being asked to identify culprits from CCTV pictures of litterbugs.
Anti-smoking campaigners called for an apology from the BBC after the speed-mad Top Gear presenters lit up Porsche branded pipes and puffed away during the news section of the controversial programme.
Clarkson was then shown 'eating' the pipe's bowl before running from the stage having burned his tongue.
The show was filmed at a hanger near Godalming in Surrey. An investigation is underway by the local Waverley Borough Council....
But it gets better, now the police can't even nick criminals as it might be seen as rascist.
Officers have identified a burgeoning industry which typically operates out of anonymous rented houses in the suburbs and shires.
They had planned to write to property landlords warning them to look out for suspicious tenancy applications...
**And of course the good old health & safety, plus some nice revenue from all the fines...
It also calls for a blitz on motorists more likely to cause accidents - such as fat drivers who are prone to dozing off and elderly drivers who may no longer be safe behind the wheel.
The report from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety - which advises MPs and the Government - says local authorities want to introduce digital cameras which measure
speed over a set distance to enforce the 20mph limit.
Such cameras - as opposed to those which log a cars speed at a single point - regularly catch out thousands of drivers at roadworks on motorways. ..
Oh and of course the grumbling by the powers that be have started again on the one bit of joy we have left, that is Christmas by the way.
Britain could be facing a bleak mid-winter as the cost of following health and safety rules is forcing councils to consider scrapping Christmas lights, business leaders have warned.
Stringent new regulations and increased insurance premiums have pushed the price of a modest festive display to as much as £25,000, and out of the reach of many town budgets
This year councils must use a pressure gauge to individually test every bolt holding a cable or light fitting to a wall.Only fully insured professionals can hang the lights and workers must use expensive hydraulic platforms to do the job because ladders are not deemed safe.
Stephen Alambritis, from the Federation of Small Businesses, is warning that the country is heading for a “Christmas blackout”.
He said: “It is a very sad state of affairs. The festive period is looking darker and bleaker year on year....
Christmas cancelled by health & safety nazis**Only in New Labours Cool Britannia could nonsense like this become policy. To think that no longer do councils do our bidding but we the public are there to be dictated to by them, to follow their dictates, to be snooped upon, watched and informed upon by petty Quislings.
Tags: Nanny State, Big Brother, Cool Britannia, Political Correctness,
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