'I was fined for spitting but I didn't do it'

Known affectionately as the "Local Library Legend", 63-year-old Kamal Shah considers himself to be a pillar of his Harrow community.

For the past eight years he has chaired the North Harrow Community Library and says he is well known locally for his community spirit.

"Round this area, all the neighbours, all the residents know me," he says.

"If they've got a problem they will come to me because they know I will help them raise their issues and hopefully resolve them."

So he was shocked when two civil enforcement officers stopped him and accused him of spitting - something he says he didn't do, and would never do.

Despite there being no evidence of him spitting, Shah was issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) ordering him to pay £100, or face court action.

He has since had the fine overturned - but says the contractors working for the local council need greater scrutiny.

Shah was stopped last September by enforcement officers from a company called Kingdom, which works on behalf of Harrow Council by serving FPNs for anti-social behaviour such as spitting, throwing away cigarette butts and fly-tipping.

He says he was going to the pharmacy when he was stopped.

"They said I spat in the air. They couldn't show me any evidence," says Shah, who denies spitting at all.

"I feel like I was stereotyped. On the day my leg was hurting, I was limping a bit. I looked older, an easy target."

The officers wear body-worn cameras, but in Shah's case these only captured the officers approaching him, not the alleged offence.

Shah says the whole exchange was "very intimidating" and left him shaken.

The following day he was sent another FPN for the same offence with a different reference number.

Last year a different enforcement company working for Harrow had its contract cancelled after a five-year-old girl was fined for fly-tipping.

The child was sent a FPN by APCOA claiming she was "witnessed by a uniformed officer… committing the offence of fly-tipping".

It transpired that parcel packaging with her name on it was found on a street away from her home address.

Kingdom, the council's new contractor, has issued 120,000 fines and works for 35 local authorities, a number of them in London, including Haringey, Enfield, Sutton and Merton, according to the company's website.

Shah has shown the BBC the officers' body-worn footage which does not show him spitting.

He managed to get the fine cancelled, but only with the help of his council contacts.

"For a normal person to deal with this is absolutely horrendous," he says.

"You click on a link to appeal and it goes through to Kingdom chatbot. You can't speak to anyone."

He believes most people pay up, even if they have been unfairly accused, to avoid having to challenge the fine at the magistrates' court.

Shah agrees that anti-social behaviour should be punished but questions whether the contractors are being properly scrutinised.

"I have no objection to the council hiring private contractors but there has to be scrutiny over them," he says.

He believes the "whole system is designed to generate revenue" and says, from what he has been told, "there are no regular checks" on the company, "only if somebody complains".

A spokesperson for Harrow Council said: "Where concerns are raised about officer conduct, we alert Kingdom immediately.

"They will review all evidence and take swift action to ensure the service remains fair and proportionate."

The spokesperson added: "This isn't about profit, it's about protecting our public spaces.

"The money from fines is reinvested into improving our streets, parks and public spaces to help make Harrow better for our residents and restore pride back into our streets."

Kingdom Local Authority Support (LAS) said Shah had received two FPNs for the same alleged offence due to a "technical issue" with the handheld systems used by its officers.

A spokesperson said the issue had affected "only a small number of cases", which were being resolved.

The spokesperson added that Kingdom LAS did not set quotas for FPNs, nor did its officers receive any incentives for fines.

"If we receive information that any of our staff have been directing teams otherwise this would be a disciplinary offence," they said.

"Our enforcement process is agreed with Harrow Council, and if anyone who has been issued a Fixed Penalty Notice would want their case reviewing, this is carried out by a dedicated case management team as part of our investigation and enforcement process."

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