Elizabeth Winkfield says she will go to jail rather than pay the tax

Elizabeth Winkfield, from Westward Ho!, appeared before Barnstaple magistrates wearing a hat she bought in a jumble sale and a suit she made herself.

They issued her with a liability order to pay nearly £99 which she has withheld from her total bill.

She was supported outside court by about 30 banner-waving fellow members of the Devon Pensioners' Action Forum, which was created following a council tax rise of nearly 18% last year.

'Wasting cash'

The pensioner's council tax bill last year for her Band C bungalow was £747.81, but she held back £98.80, the amount of the rise.

Miss Winkfield, who was also ordered to pay £10 costs, said outside the court: "I have been doing nothing and I will continue doing nothing."

Kenneth Camp also faces jail for tax non-payment

She said if the bailiffs turned up at her home she would not let them in, adding: "I have not got anything which is really much good to them."

Miss Winkfield, who lives on the basic state pension of £312 per month, criticised councils for wasting cash, and said her message to them was: "Pull yourselves together and stop wasting money."

Miss Winkfield, who grows her own vegetables, said: "I am just very careful all the time.

"I'm making a stand. Even if I was a millionaire I wouldn't pay it."

In Plymouth, 74-year-old widower Kenneth Camp, was told by city magistrates on Thursday he also faced jail if he refused to pay up £115.

Mr Camp said: "More likely I'll end up back in court, but I couldn't care less."

Election battle

Another Devon pensioner is due in court next week over non-payment of council tax.

Retired social worker Sylvia Hardy, 71, from Barrack Road, Exeter, Devon, is due before the city magistrates on 25 February over the £91 she owes on her Band D flat.

Miss Hardy, who has also pledged to go to jail rather than pay up, is standing as an Independent candidate in the county council by-election for the city's St David's and Pennsylvania ward.

Faced with a total bill of £644, she has not been paying the full council tax rise - just a 1.7% increase in line with last year's rise in the state pension.

Earlier this year an 84-year-old former magistrate, David Richardson, of Haytor, Devon, appeared before Newton Abbot magistrates after refusing to pay all his tax, and was given a £70.20 liability order along with £30 legal costs.

Devon Pensioners' Action Forum has declared its intention to fight all 54 seats on Devon County Council at the next elections in 2005.