Station vendor walks free

Station vendor walks free

An unemployed man held in police cells after he was arrested for selling newspapers outside Exeter railway station has claimed "a victory for common sense" after the case against him was dropped.

Barry Cocker, 59, was arrested by British Transport Police after he was spotted selling the papers last December.

He had begun his one-man news vending business to supplement the £60 he received from the government's New Deal programme to get people back to work.

When he appeared before Exeter magistrates on Friday to face a charge of selling newspapers on railway property, the Crown Prosecution Service said the matter was being discontinued.

I have ordered extra supplies of newspapers

Barry Cocker

Mr Cocker, of Well Street, Exeter, who denied the charge, said afterwards: "It is a victory for common sense, but it was a pointless exercise."

And he added that he would be back on his pitch outside St David's Station - from which he made 92p a day profit - on Monday.

"I have ordered extra supplies of newspapers," said Mr Cocker, adding that he numbered judges among his customers.

Mr Cocker said he only sold newspapers at St David's before the news stand there opened up for business.

"I got there at 5.30am, and as soon as the station shop opened I left as a matter of courtesy," said Mr Cocker.

Relied on

He was arrested as he sold newspapers which he had laid out on a bench on the pavement outside the station.

"The station duty manager said I was selling papers without authority," said Mr Cocker.

"I said I was allowed to sell them under the street trading provisions of the Local Government Act 1982," he added.

"How can a pavement be a railway?" he said.

He said he was arrested by British Transport Police and kept in cells for five hours.

"I think people came to rely on my for papers at the station," said Mr Cocker, a former antique dealer who was on the dole before he began his newspaper business.

A First Great Western spokesman said: "We feel this is very much a police matter.

"However, we support the actions the police took, because we have a need to protect our customers and the retail tenants within this station."