Wychavon District Council ought to admit defeat in the battle against Droitwich pensioner Nellie Copson.

Surely last week's court case underlined once and for all the futility of criminal proceedings against the OAP, who has refused for several years to pay business rates on her empty shop in Droitwich High Street.

District Judge Philip Browning made the situation clear when, after long deliberation, he returned to the court room and told the 82-year-old: "Let me remove any tension, if there is any, immediately, and say that I am not going to send you to prison today."

He went on to express sympathy for the council officers, whom he said had "leaned over backwards" to try and resolve the dispute.

Mr Browning also branded Miss Copson "a difficult and obstructive old lady". He said the bench that sent her to prison had done so because the magistrates had run out of options.

Yet he repeated he would not consider jail, due to her age - and left the council to handle the legal hot potato.

All councils charged with collecting business rates, or council tax, must be anxious about the implications.

Someone somewhere will feel confident about telling his or her local authority where to shove their bills, seeing the Nellie Copson case as a watershed.

Crucially, Mr Browning dodged telling us at what age people became "too old" for prison - although he warned that younger people could expect the full wrath of the law. Talk about ageism!

Jail does seem harsh when the offence is a financial one, and the country's swelling prison population should concern all but the "hang 'em-and-flog 'em" brigade.

But where do we draw the line?

I don't believe prison should only be a penalty for people who are violent and pose a danger to the public.

Should Jeffrey Archer have been put on probation after his conviction for perjury, or given a fine that he could have paid with the loose change in his pocket, for instance? I think not.

A community punishment order (until a few weeks ago, called a community service order) wouldn't have reflected well on the courts in the Nellie Copson case.

Critics would have accused the authorities of heartlessness, although Miss Copson is more sprightly than some women 10 years her junior.

The courts have thrown in the towel.

Now it's in everyone's interest for Wychavon District Council to bring this bitter controversy to a speedy end.