A Traubert’s Heath man was handed a suspended prison
sentence yesterday after being found guilty of contravening the Almanac
Probity Act of 1871.
In an
extraordinary session of Froghill Crown Court, Reginald Mellish, proprietor of
Cuckooland Calendars Ltd., was given a three-year sentence and fined £10,000
plus costs.
Mellish,
52, of Wendell’s Road, pleaded guilty to one count of gross meteorological
inaccuracy and a further three counts of aggravated deception.
The first charge related to a claim in Cuckooland’s 2019 calendar
for the Early May Bank Holiday. Under the date May 6th was printed:
“It’s Bank Holiday Monday - 120% chance of rain today”. As it transpired, the opposite
proved true and the entire 24-hour period remained dry.
“I put it to
you,” said presiding judge Neville Silliphant, “that you wilfully exploited commonly-held
beliefs about the weather and published information based on precedent rather
than prediction. The resulting confusion was both widespread and conducive to
public disorder.”
For the charges of aggravated deception, the jury were referred to calendar entries
for Whit Sunday, August Bank Holiday and Christmas Day. These read: ‘Earthquakes
likely today’, ‘UK to suffer nuclear attack by Bhutan’ and ‘Jesus will emerge
from a silver spacecraft this morning, probably near Cirencester’.
“In the light of such callous disregard for human credulity, I have no
hesitation in handing down the maximum sentence permitted for these offences,”
said Mr. Silliphant, addressing the defendant. “Consider yourself fortunate indeed
that I have decided to suspend the prison term.”
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