A council has told a smoker to pay more than £800 for carelessly discarding a cigarette.
Carl Smith, 31, was issued with a £100 fixed penalty notice earlier this year for dropping the butt on the street, Bromley council said.
He was then prosecuted after failing to pay the notice for littering in the Kent town’s Market Square, contrary to the Environmental Protection Act.
Smith, of New Addington in Croydon, south London, pleaded guilty on Dec 3 by the single justice procedure, where cases are decided behind closed doors, often by a single magistrate, without the defendant appearing in court.
He was subsequently ordered to pay £833 by Bromley magistrates’ court.
The amount included a fine of £293, a surcharge of £117 and costs of £423 to be paid by Jan 14.
Bromley council said it was the 12th prosecution it had carried out for littering since the beginning of September, as part of a crackdown.
Market Square in Bromley where the littering offence happened – Jonathan Wilson/iStock
It added that they serve as a “warning to others to not discard unwanted items in the street, but to place them in a litter bin or take rubbish home”.
A council spokesman said: “On behalf of residents, the council has street-cleaning teams working seven days a week across the borough, keeping our streets neat.
“Littering undoes this work and is illegal, with our enforcement team issuing a fixed penalty notice to anyone seen littering.
“If payment is not received then prosecution will follow, with fines and costs being considerably higher than the fixed penalty notice.”
In November, also in Kent, Dartford council fined a non-smoker £75 for dropping a cigarette in Swanscombe before officials realised she lived more than 160 miles away at the time of the offence and it was a case of mistaken identity.
