This Can of Beer Cost U.K. Taxpayers Thousands of Pounds

And it's not even good beer.

Stephen Geddes, 42, had been banned from possessing any container of alcohol in public following a series of drunken incidents in Turnham Green.

But in June he was caught near his home in Chiswick with a can of Heineken.

Magistrates sentenced him to an 18-month community order with an alcohol treatment requirement and 40 hours of unpaid work.

But they sent his case to the Old Bailey [the court normally used to try only the most serious criminal cases] for sentencing over a breach to an earlier suspended sentence.

That decision surprised the judge, Mr Recorder William Clegg, QC who pointed out: "The only thing he's done is to open a can of beer. It is rather a brave [Asbo] order to make for an alcoholic. It's not exactly stealing the crown jewels.

"Who would have thought a can of beer would have cost so much public money?"

For good patriotic Americans who have no idea what the phrase "rather a brave Asbo" means—thank your lucky Founders. An Asbo is an Anti-Social Behavior Order, and they hand them out in the U.K. for such as offenses as swearing, drinking, spitting, wearing a hoodie, or (according to Wikipedia) "dogging (theatrical public sex)." Some kids in the U.K. consider an Asbo a badge of honor. Mr. Geddes probably does not.

Lots more Reason on Asbos here.