We know you don’t believe it, but somebody actually got fined for shouting in the early hours of one morning in the city of Granada – and not a piffle at that, but 251 euros.

The municipal bylaws stipulate singing or shouting over a certain volume when people are trying to get a good night’s sleep is forbidden. Admittedly, you wouldn’t have thought so – especially our Ed who lives in a flat above noisy night bars – but the fact is that the laws exist; it’s just they are very rarely enforced.

Anyway, so there was this chap singing his lungs out, interspersed with lamppost-rattling exclamations along Calle Ramón y Cajal, when a pair of patrolling Policía Local told him to quieten it down. Enjoying the reputation of being honed and ruthless law enforcers, he completely ignored them.

Out came the fining pad and his identity papers demanded and before you could hum the opening bars of Silent Night, they had scribbled in: The above mentioned citizen was shouting and provoking noise on a public street at 05.25 am, disturbing neighbourhood rest.”

A police spokesman pointed out that fines of this kind are not frequent – you can say that again!

(News: Metropolitan Granada, Granada, Andalucia)