Sylvia Hardy, a 73-year-old spinster, had refused all offers of help from well-wishers. She was making a stand in the hope of forcing the Government to reconsider an unjust tax, she said.

Bag in hand, she marched to the court from her Exeter home accompanied by a small crowd of banner-waving supporters. Hundreds more were waiting to wave her off.

Hardy, only the second council tax protester to be jailed, was compared by supporters to Emily Pankhurst, the suffragette whose campaigning helped to win the vote for women.

Her imprisonment will cost taxpayers five times more than her council tax arrears. She will serve only 3½ days because all prisoners sentenced to twelve months or less are automatically released at the halfway stage. By that time it will have cost the state a total of £336, compared with council tax arrears of £53.71p.

Before she was jailed Hardy read a statement from the dock at Exeter Magistrates’ Court. “Letters and lobbying to MPs and councillors have fallen on deaf ears, and all that is left is to take direct action, whatever the consequences.

“If sacrifice of my liberty for seven days does anything to force politicians to begin to serve those who elected them to office, it will be worthwhile.”

Supporters from the Devon Pensioners’ Action Forum, who packed the courtroom, shouted “shame” and “pompous ass” as Lewis Crowden, chairman of the bench, told her: “If everyone paid their debts on the basis of what they thought was appropriate, the country would descend into anarchy. You have been given every chance to pay the debt, and you have refused. You may think you are a martyr, but you ’re not — so we are sending you to prison.”

Hardy, who suffers from food allergies and a bad back, will serve her time at Eastwood Park women’s prison in Gloucestershire.

Last week she visited the first council tax protester to be sent to jail at Milton Keynes. The Rev Alfred Riley, 71, a retired vicar from Towcester, is serving 28 days for refusing to pay £691 arrears. He warned Hardy that prison beds are uncomfortable.

Hardy made her stand because her council tax had risen by six times the increase in her pension. She receives an occupational pension from her former employer, Devon County Council, and the state pension which, combined, give her a weekly income of £270.

Over the past four years the council tax charge on her £130,000 flat has increased by 38 per cent to £708.26, compared with a rise of only 6.8 per cent in her pension.

Two years ago she refused to pay that year’s 3.5 per cent rise and said she would pay only the same percentage by which her pension had been increased, leaving a shortfall of £53.71. On June 20 magistrates gave her a suspended sentence — a last chance to pay.

In court she repeated her defiance. The clerk, Paul Vincent, asked whether she intended to pay the outstanding amount. She replied: “I’m afraid not.”

She continued: “Throughout history, people have fought to change laws which are unjust, and often the only way to do this is to break the law or ignore it and to accept the punishment. That is why I am appearing here today to accept my punishment for desperately trying to salvage my ever- reducing quality of life.

“We are trying to bring home to government that if something is not done very soon to put right the many injustices the people of this country have to suffer year on year, the normally docile people will say enough is enough and will gather in mass civil disobedience.”

She waved and smiled at her supporters as prison officers led her from the dock. Outside the court Beryl Talling, 70, from Polperro, Cornwall, said: “She’s a martyr. This whole situation is an absolute disgrace.”

Albert Venison, chairman of Devon Pensioners Action Forum, said: “I think she’s a very brave woman. We can’t afford to keep paying these increases and we have got to take a stand. It’s disgraceful that at our time of life, when we should be enjoying our retirement, that we have every spare penny taken off us.”

Later six elderly protesters tried to block the car carrying Hardy from entering Eastwood Park prison, shouting “Goodbye, Sylvia.”

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