A pensioner who was fined for using a mobile phone while driving has claimed he has never had one in his life – and was actually holding his wallet.

Frank Singh, 77, was fined $362 after he was caught by a mobile phone detection camera on the Pacific Motorway in the Northern Rivers region of NSW last September.

Mr Singh refused to pay the fine, arguing that he could not use a telephone at the time because he had never owned one – or even a computer.

The 77-year-old decided to appeal and take Revenue NSW to court, despite the risk of having to pay thousands in legal fees if he lost the case.

“It looks like I'm guilty of it, but I'm not,” he said A current issue.

“I thought, what the hell is this about, I don't have a cell phone. I've never used a cell phone before. What a load of shit.”

Mr Singh was pinged for apparently using a phone while driving on a road trip to visit a partner.

Footage captured by the traffic detection cameras shows Mr Singh sitting behind the wheel and looking at an object in his left hand.

“I think it could be my wallet,” he said when asked what the item could be.

Although Mr Singh admitted he cannot remember exactly what he was doing at the time, he believes he may have put his wallet on the passenger seat after paying for the fuel.

He decided to appeal the fine, which required a friend to provide her mobile phone and email address.

The review was rejected and Mr Singh was again ordered to pay the fine.

“I thought it would be a pretty simple process to drop it,” his friend Kishori Breeze told the program.

'He received a letter saying: yes, we understand that you say you don't have a phone, but please pay the fine anyway.'

But Mr Singh refused to give up.

“Then I thought, I'm not guilty, I don't have a damn phone,” he said.

The pensioner was warned by the Byron Bay magistrate that if found guilty he would not only have to pay the $362 fine but also at least $2,000 in legal costs.

Lawyer Richard Mitri said Mr Singh would have suffered a “pretty big blow” if he had lost the second appeal.

He said traffic violations typically presumed drivers had done something wrong, making it difficult to prove otherwise in court.

“With most traffic violations it's actually the other way around,” says Mitry.

“So in this case, you're under the assumption that you did the wrong thing based on the fact that a camera captured you and the camera thought you did the wrong thing.”

In an unexpected turn of events, Revenue NSW has since withdrawn the fine.

Mr Singh received a letter stating that he would not appear in court following an investigation by the government agency.

“We have decided to withdraw the fine,” the letter said.

“You little bloody beauty, how good is that,” said Mr. Singh when he heard the news.

He planned to celebrate the victory with a beer at his local pub.

The makers behind Northern Ireland’s heartwarming Charlie’s Bar Christmas advert have opened up about loneliness around the festive period.

Good Morning Britain presenters Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley invited the creators, including star Martin McManus and landlady Una Burns, to the show earlier this morning.

The video, from Charlie’s Bar in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, tells the story of a lonely elderly gentleman who finds companionship in two friendly strangers after their adorable dog brings them together.

Speaking to the presenters, Una revealed that the moving message is based on the reality of Christmas in the pub: ‘Unfortunately Christmas is not a happy time for everyone.’

Martin, a local actor who met Una through a friend, agreed with a similar sentiment: “I think it’s very important that people care about the elderly and the lonely.”

Una continued, “The idea actually came from what I’ve been used to seeing over the years, especially around the holidays, and unfortunately Christmas isn’t a happy time for everyone.

“I imagine most of us have been sadly affected by grief, and we wanted to portray that while also conveying the essence of Charlie.”

She added, “My dad and I do it [the Christmas shift] You usually see a whole bunch of people here… it’s one of my favorite services of the year.”

Una said she wanted to cast someone in the ad who is not a regular at the bar.

“I found Martin through a friend of mine who suggested I reach out,” she said.

‘I didn’t want someone who is a regular at the bar or a well-known face as we were very conscious of not wanting to distract from the message.’

“It was truly a team effort,” she added.

The hosts also quizzed Martin about his newfound fame, which he described as “incredible.”

‘I’m used to making amateur drama, more locally. Certainly not on a global scale,” said Martin.

But the local actor didn’t deviate from the emotional message behind the ad.

He said: ‘I think it is very important that people look out for the elderly and the lonely. And it’s not just the elderly who are lonely.’

He added, ‘[Loneliness] is quite exaggerated during the holidays because there are so many people. It’s a sad time for memories. Especially if you now live on your own.’

The two people Martin befriends during the ad also appeared on the show, alongside the dog Missy.

Richard asked the couple if they had to do multiple takes to get the dog next to Martin in the ad. Megan Daley said: ‘No, it was just a few treats and a little bit of waving to get her up.’

Alex Middlemass joked: ‘It was harder to get her out of bed this morning!’

The emotional ad, which has stolen hearts, begins with a shot of an elderly man walking to the cemetery to visit a grave, where he has a moment of reflection as he lays down some flowers.

We then see him walking along the road, hoping for a friendly face or a chat, only to be turned away into the busy noise of people engrossed in their own lives.

In one instance, two girls walk past him while laughing together. Elsewhere, a man reading a newspaper lifts it higher to avoid talking to him.

A young couple with a dog then walks past, only to see their dog being tempted by a pub on the street: Charlie’s Bar.

They decide to go in and hold the door open for the old man – who happily accepts and enters the cozy watering hole.

He sits down alone to enjoy a pint of Guinness, while the pair from earlier get a drink at the bar.

But soon their adorable four-legged friend runs to the man who is sitting alone.

He welcomes the enthusiastic company and pets the dog while letting him sit next to him.

The couple, delighted with their friendly pet, asks if they can sit with the man – to which he happily agrees, and the trio enjoy cheerful conversation together.

The sweet video – filmed and edited by Aoife Teague – ends with a quote from WB Yeats’s poem: ‘There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t met yet.’

An Australian retiree has been hit with a huge rent increase for her home, despite keeping the property ‘clean’ and paying for the upgrades.

Victorian woman Anne-Marie Petrucco, 78, revealed her rent increased by $98 a week, taking the rent from $232 a week to $330.

Ms Petrucco lives in a two-bedroom house in Mitchell Park, just outside Ballarat, about 115km northwest of Melbourne.

‘I am a 78-year-old retiree. I have been renting my unit for almost 3 years. I think it’s great, safe, etc.,” she wrote on Facebook last week.

“My rent is going up $98.00 a week starting this week. $196.00 per fortnight. I have contacted all powers including state politics. It was all to no avail.’

Ms Petrucco said she would limit her social life, limit the amount of driving and cut back on spending on her grandchildren’s Christmas presents because of the financial pressures.

“I’m not complaining and by the grace of God I know I will survive,” she said.

“So for others in this predicament, if you’re like me, you can’t find anything cheaper.

‘Take one day at a time and have faith and yes, cut back on things. And you will get through it. Good luck everyone’

Mrs Petrucco said she has kept her house and garden ‘spotless’ and that she is ‘proud where I live’.

She also said that, on top of the hefty rent increase, she had previously paid half of the $2,500 bill to have an air conditioner installed in the unit.

‘And I now also pay, for $10.00 every two weeks, for the security door with fly screen at the front. $385.00,” she said.

Ms Petrucco said she felt it was a no-win situation.

But she managed to maintain a positive outlook on life, stating that “faith” kept her going.

“By the grace of God, I still feel so blessed to have a roof over my head and something to eat,” she said.

Ms Petrucco said she approached Centrelink but “didn’t get any more help than I’m getting”.

“Regardless of what anyone says, a pension increase of essentially $200.00 every fortnight is huge. Three-quarters of our pension,” she said.

For a single person, the old-age pension is $1,096.70 per fortnight, which amounts to approximately $28,514 per year.

For a couple it is $826.70 per fortnight, or $21,494 per year.

Ms Petrucco’s post caught the attention of hundreds of concerned residents on a local Facebook community group.

Many sympathized with the retiree’s circumstances and expressed outrage at the shocking rent increase.

‘I really feel sorry for you, poor woman. So unfair, to be almost 80 and have those fears, you can only wish the best,” one person wrote.

‘Bloody ridiculous. What a walk. I’m so sorry to hear that. Blessings to you,” said another.

‘Real estate agents are urging owners to increase rent because property managers get more commission! I’ve seen it happen. They always push for an increase,” said a third.

Another commenter placed the blame on the federal government.

“Albenese (sic) said the cost of living will drop and no one will be left behind, what a load of nonsense,” one person said.

Others shared similar stories of having heard of significant rent increases.

“I know an elderly man aged 82 and his private landlord increased the rent on the granny flat from $90 to $190 per week and now the landlord has increased the rent to $500 per week,” one comment read.

Ms Petrucco said she also discovered that her real estate agent was renting out a three-bedroom house just a few doors away for the same price as her two-bedroom house.

“There’s no point,” she said.

In Victoria, a rental provider cannot increase the rent during a fixed-term agreement unless the rental agreement states that this is okay.

If the lease agreement allows an increase, the agreement must state how the increase is calculated.

The rental provider must notify the tenant by means of a Rent Increase Notification form, which must be submitted at least 60 days before the effective date of the increase.

However, the law does not specify exactly how much a rental provider may increase the rent.

Tenants can ask Consumer Affairs Victoria to investigate and report rent increases if they believe the increase is higher than the market range.

Victorian tenants have lodged a record 5,400 appeals against rent increases in the past 12 months, a 120 per cent increase on the previous year.

The average rental price for a house in regional Victoria is $420 per week.

An 82-year-old woman has completed an annual seven-week trek from England to the Scottish Highlands with her pack pony and dog.

Jane Dotchin has been making the epic 600-mile journey every year since 1972, catching up with the friends she has made along the way.

Heading north, the horse lover travels between 15 and 20 miles a day until she reaches Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.

This year she set off again with her horse Diamond from the small farm where she lives, near Hexham, Northumberland.

“I love camping and I love the countryside,” she said.

‘The more I’ve done it, the more nice people I’ve met along the way that I’d like to see again.’

Jane carries everything she needs, including her tent, food, a few items and her Jack Russel Dinky in the saddle bag.

“She loves to sit in the saddlebag,” Jane said. “She loves sitting in there and watching the world go by.”

And despite wearing an eye patch, Jane is determined to continue the annual tradition for as long as possible.

‘I know the route so well, I don’t need to read a map. I can do it if I follow the routes I know,” she added.

“If I were ever in trouble, I know there would be someone not far away to help.”

Jane first got a taste of long-distance trekking when she trotted to the idyllic West Country about 40 years ago in 1972.

She previously said: ‘My mother did look after my other ponies but she wasn’t keen to look after my Halfinger stallion so I drove him to Somerset to visit a friend, which is about 300 miles.

“It was a bit of a tough slog, but it went well.”

Jane made the trip every year, riding south where the bridleways were much better.

But as the area developed, she noticed the route becoming more and more crowded and decided to head north instead.

She has made the journey north every autumn for the past thirty years, visiting friends along the way, including some near Fort Augustus, on the edge of Loch Ness.

‘It’s nice to see them again. I call them in the morning to say I’ll be there in the evening,” Jane said.

“I don’t warn them too far in advance because if the weather suddenly changes or I decide to stop early, they might wonder where I should go.”

The journey takes approximately seven weeks, depending on the weather.

“I refuse to trudge through the pouring wet rain,” Jane added.

‘I don’t want to go over hilltops in bad weather, but I do on the road. Maps don’t bother me, I just stick to the routes I know.’

Jane lives on porridge, oatcakes and cheese, and carries an old mobile phone with a battery that lasts six weeks – although getting a signal can be a problem.

While Jack Russell Dinky is on a diet of oatmeal porridge, oatcakes and cheese, which is bought from local shops.

Jane is devastated by the litter she has seen over the years, which she finds ‘shameful’.

She once said: ‘It’s terrible, especially the disposable barbecues that are left everywhere.’

Jane received earlier The British Equine Association Lifetime Achievement Award, which she said was “a bit of a surprise.”

“There’s always something interesting happening and there’s never a dull moment,” she added.

The British Horse Society Scotland wrote in a Facebook post: ‘Well done Jane, Dinky the dog and Diamond – 2023 was a wet year but even well into your 80s you were never put off by the rain. You are an inspiration to riders everywhere.”

One of Britain’s loneliest pensioners has been told the news that he has oesophageal cancer just days after sharing his grief on a documentary.

John Foster, 76, who has outlived all his friends and family, has said he wishes he wasn’t here after discovering he has the disease just six weeks ago.

The former shipyard worker, who appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Forgotten Pensioners, is now unable to eat and is forced to survive on liquid protein mixes that he says ‘taste vile’.

John lives alone in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear and sits in the dark with his empty fridge turned off due to rising energy costs and visits his family’s graves every day.

He said: ‘It’s no life, it’s not living, it’s just existing, things were bad enough but now I can’t even enjoy the little things.

‘I used to love my breakfasts, sometimes I’d even have two, one of the only joys I had left, now I can’t eat anything, I’m sick to death.

‘I have to take three of these bottles a day and they’re horrible, they taste like chemicals, everything I try to eat does now.

‘I used to love pasties too, I’ve tried to eat small bits but they taste like the drugs I’m taking.

‘Where the tumour is, it’s stopping any food getting down to my stomach and it gets stuck, it’s constantly feeling like somethings went down the wrong way, it’s awful.

John is currently undergoing chemotherapy for the disease which is making him very ill.

He is due to start radiotherapy in January 2024 but he doesn’t feel hopeful about the future.

He added: ‘To be honest, I would rather not be here.

‘People can’t survive like this, the drugs attack everything, I felt fine until I got diagnosed, I thought i had a hernia and it would be a simple check up.

‘The doctor sat me down and told me it was serious, my health has deteriorated since starting chemo, I just don’t have the energy for anything.

‘I said to the doctor last time I went for a check up, can you please just give me something to end it all.

‘I usually go cut the grass at the cemetery on a Saturday, and I look forward to it, I am so tired I don’t know if I can even do that any more, anything I once enjoyed – I can’t do’.

The gentle OAP captured the hearts of the nation in the Dispatches programme aired on Wednesday, June 7, when it was revealed he leaves his will out on his sofa overnight in case something happens to him and no-one is around.

The retired shipyard worker has now revealed he leaves all his paperwork out 24/7 now since his diagnosis in case he dies.

John’s last surviving relative, his beloved sister Joan, 74, whom he lived with, died six years ago leaving the former factory worker completely on his own.

‘People thought we were a married couple we were that close, we did everything together, I miss her so much.

‘We were such a close knit family, none of us left the family home. It was mam, dad, me, my younger brother Tom and my sister.

‘Tom died four days before his 41st birthday and I don’t think my parents ever recovered, my mam became a recluse, losing her youngest child broke her.

‘He was a miner and had coal dust on his lungs but he was in and out of hospital for years and couldn’t walk properly by the end.

‘My mam lost all interest in everything, stopped cooking, didn’t want to leave the house, we had to rally round and force her out the house, she couldn’t cope’.

Just four years later he sadly lost his parents Margaret, 76, and John, 82, who tragically died within 24 hours of each other.

‘We were sitting watching telly and my dad went through the living room to go get ready.

‘Mam said ring an ambulance your dad doesn’t look right, so I did.

‘When they knocked on the door my dad went off it with me for ringing them, he hated hospitals and didn’t like the fuss, he swore he was fine and an hour later he was dead.

‘When I told my mam she recoiled in shock, sat back on her armchair, and that was it, she never spoke another word.

‘She died the next day, the coroner said he couldn’t medically say she passed with a broken heart but sometimes when someone gets such a big shock, it can kill them.

‘Her and my dad were so close, they did everything together so I don’t think she would have survived without him anyway.

‘Me and my sister were traumatised by losing them both so suddenly, the house went from being full to being just us, i tried to kill myself, I didn’t want to be here anymore without them.

‘I got sectioned after taking an overdose, it was too terrible to imagine living in a world without them here, but Joan got me through it.

‘It was just us two after that so when Joan died of Dementia in 2017 I was completely alone and terrified, the house was all of a sudden so silent and I’ve felt hollow ever since.

‘She was such a funny person, everywhere we went people loved her, she loved embarrassing me.

‘She was completely deaf after having meningitis at two-year-old and had learning difficulties but she was smart, she looked after me so when she passed, it was like losing everything, a light went out.

‘None of us married, none of us had kids. My mam used to say “when are you going to get married and give me grandchildren?” But none of us did, she never got them.

‘I feel incredibly lonely, I visit their graves every day just to feel closer to them, they’re all buried in the same place and I’ll be joining them one day, probably soon.’

The heartbreaking programme showed Mr Foster laying out his will and funeral arrangements before going to bed in case he died in the night. 

‘I started doing this when my sister died. I’ve got no family – they’ve all gone – so there’s nobody to do things like this,’ he said. 

‘If anyone comes into the house this is the first thing they’re going to see. They will phone the funeral directors, they’ll come out and everything will be done.’ 

Asked if he ever feels sad, Mr Foster said: ‘You should say “do you ever feel happy?” Because I’m sad all the time.’ 

The pensioner explained that his brother, a miner, died four days before his 41st birthday, while his sister died five years ago. His mother and father died within 27 hours of each other. 

‘I’ve got no family, never been married, no kids. Family, if you lose one or two it’s bad enough, but if you lose all of them you’re completely on your own and it’s just a nightmare,’ he said. 

‘I can’t believe I’m the last one here. It takes getting your head around it, you just can’t work it out.’ 

The documentary showed Karen Noble, from local charity Pallion Action Group, helping Mr Foster gain access to benefits so he could afford utility bills and proper meals.

In total this amounted to an extra £131.25 every week which the pensioner did not know he was entitled to.

He said afterwards: ‘I’m getting a lot more money now, which I’ve been entitled to for a few years and I didn’t know, I had no idea.’ 

Mr Foster can now afford to go shopping and no longer needs to rely on foodbanks.

Ms Noble said: ‘I know that there’s lots of information online, but we all know older people who don’t go online. 

‘In John’s case, if somebody had sat, when his sister had passed away and was on his own, had asked what was going on, then that would have highlighted that he needed some additional support.

‘Nobody did, so whose responsibility is it and how are we going to solve it? I think it’s shocking that we’ve got a 76-year-old man who could have been getting an additional benefit for ten years and nobody picked it up.’

A National Energy Action poll commissioned by Channel 4 for the documentary revealed the struggles elderly people are facing due to rising gas and electricity bills. 

It revealed one in five (19 per cent) over-65s went to bed earlier than usual for warmth, while 1.8million older people turned off their heating completely this winter to save money.

Meanwhile, three in five (59 per cent) over 65s said they used their heating less than they ordinarily would.

Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said: ‘Many viewers will be shocked by this programme, and they are right to be. 

‘Pensioner poverty fell steadily for a generation but then it rose again and now, as this documentary demonstrates, it’s truly back with a vengeance.

‘What we see in this programme ought to be a wake-up call that prompts an important discussion about how we ensure every older person can live decently and with dignity, free from the fear of the next big unaffordable bill.’ 

Hard-pressed households will receive a minor boost next month as Ofgem lowers its price cap to just over £2,000 a year – a saving of nearly £450. 

Energy consultancy firm Cornwall Insight predicts the price cap will fall by £446 to £2,054 a year, based on falling wholesale energy prices.

However, campaigners warned households are not set to feel relief for another seven years, with energy bills set to remain high until 2030 at the earliest.

‘We do not currently expect bills to return to pre-2020 levels before the end of the decade at the earliest,’ Cornwall Insight said.

Fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) said that bills would remain ‘unaffordable’ for many due to the Government’s decision to cut its winter support packages.

You can watch Britain’s Forgotten Pensioners: Dispatches now on 4oD.  

Pensioner in disbelief after paying £9.60 for a portion of fish and chips suitable for a ‘4 year old’

By Maria Okanrende for Mailonline

published: 12:06 EDT, Jun 8, 2023 | Updated: 12:09 EDT, Jun 8, 2023