Angry man pays £1,852 council tax bill in pennies

A disgruntled man ordered to cough up £1,851.94 in
council tax footed the bill in the most inconvenient
way he could imagine: by paying it all in one-pence
coins.
The bronze booty, which almost weighed a ton,
apparently had to be delivered in a lorry because it
was too heavy to put in a a car.
Trouble started brewing in

March last year when
Russell Skellett bought two crumbling homes in
Eastwood. He thought he wouldn't incur council tax
because the buildings were derlict. But Broxtowe
Council had other ideas, claiming they were habitable
and therefore subject to the levy.
After losing a subsequent court hearing, Mr. Skellet,
40, reluctantly agreed to pay, only via the gigantic
coin dump.
“I went to my bank manager and he asked me if I was
joking," he told the Eastwood & Kimberly Advertiser.
“It was in two shopping trollies and it took them two
hours for the council to weight it all. It even bent the
trollies it weighed that much.
Apparently, the council had to accept the coins
because someone told Mr. Skellet on the phone they
would do so the day before.
He paid £135,00 for the two properties adjoining his
existing home with the intention of demolishing them
to build new ones. They had not been lived in for
years and were without electricty, gas or running
water, according to the Advertiser.
“Somebody came from the council and said someone
could live in it now, it’s so ridiculous,” Mr Skellett,
who runs plastics and construction businesses, said.
He claims he was never told about his court
appearance by the council, so was unable to give his
side of the story.