Poppy pair 'threatened by police'

Published on Saturday 1 November 2008 18:51

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."