A disabled council tax rebel has sent her collection of garden gnomes into hiding to avoid them being seized by local officials.

The officials had threatened to take the gnomes from widow Gwynneth Lester in Fareham, UK after refusing to pay up.

Lester, 57, refuses to pay the tax which finances local services because, she says, she gets nothing for it.

Her rebellion has landed her in court with a demand to pay up some £670 in cash or in kind - or face prison.

"Well, they won't be taking the garden gnomes now because I have given them away." she told Reuters on Monday.  "In fact they won't be getting anything that I have collected over the years because I have given it all away to keep it from them."

(London) Reuters 2006.