Poppy pair 'threatened by police'
A POPPY seller has accused two police officers of threatening to ban the Royal British Legion if she did not stop going house-to-house during Halloween or after dark. Jan Hinton, 51, has been a Royal British Legion collector in Weymouth, Dorset for more than a decade, raising hundreds for the charity. She was out with poppy partner Charlotte Warren-Sinclaire, 16, when police stopped them last week. The two officers were responding to a call from a worried resident who thought the Poppy Appeal was not carrying out door-to-door collections and feared the collectors were bogus. Hinton said: "They said: 'We don't want you collecting after dark, do daytimes', and also: 'This is not a good idea because this is Halloween.' "They said if we didn't take notice of what they were saying they would pull the plug on the Royal British Legion doing house-to-house collections." Dorset Police denied banning poppy collectors and said they were supportive of the Poppy Appeal. A police spokesman said: "The collectors were not accused of being bogus callers and they were not banned from collecting door-to-door for the Poppy Appeal." http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Poppy-pair--39threatened-by.4652377.jp
A POPPY seller has accused two police officers of threatening to ban the Royal British Legion if she did not stop going house-to-house during Halloween or after dark. Jan Hinton, 51, has been a Royal British Legion collector in Weymouth, Dorset for more than a decade, raising hundreds for the charity. She was out with poppy partner Charlotte Warren-Sinclaire, 16, when police stopped them last week. The two officers were responding to a call from a worried resident who thought the Poppy Appeal was not carrying out door-to-door collections and feared the collectors were bogus. Hinton said: "They said: 'We don't want you collecting after dark, do daytimes', and also: 'This is not a good idea because this is Halloween.' "They said if we didn't take notice of what they were saying they would pull the plug on the Royal British Legion doing house-to-house collections." Dorset Police denied banning poppy collectors and said they were supportive of the Poppy Appeal. A police spokesman said: "The collectors were not accused of being bogus callers and they were not banned from collecting door-to-door for the Poppy Appeal." http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Poppy-pair--39threatened-by.4652377.jp