Have just reread and seen that the man is married with kids, so clearly what he did is morally wrong.
But they sound as if they were in a fairly secluded spot, at midnight, in January. Not much chance of being seen by members of the public, and just bad luck they were caught by a patrol car. I'm surprised it was worth spending court time on the. Couldn't they just have been asked to move on? Or possibly cautioned at the most?