Smoker outraged at £833 fine for dropping cigarette then failing to pay

A man caught littering when he dropped a cigarette down a drain has said he is ‘fuming’ after being fined £833.

Carl Smith, 31, refused to pay a £100 on-the-spot fine when he was spotted dropping the butt on May 23. However, when he was challenged, he said that because it wasn’t on the pavement, it didn’t count as littering.

The case was taken to court where he eventually pleaded guilty and was handed.

Explaining what happened, Carl told MailOnline: ‘I went to Zara, walked outside, was going to another shop, lit up, chucked it down the drain but he told me it was on the pavement.

‘I threw it down a drainpipe and I get assaulted by one of the enforcement officers. He grabbed me and held me going “you’re not going anywhere, I’m giving you a £100 fine on the spot”.

‘I told him “how are you going to give me a fine if you have no evidence?” I threw the cigarette down a drainpipe, it’s not littering. He didn’t want me going anywhere so he put his arm around me and he goes ‘now I’m filming you”.

‘There was a guy who threw an e-cigarette on the floor right in front of him and he didn’t do nothing. I think it’s disgraceful, really. I’m fuming.’

He has said that as he earns £1,500 a month he will have to pay the fine through a payment plan.

He said: ‘ ‘From a £100 fine to nearly £900. That’s eight times the money. It’s disgraceful. This is how bad Bromley Council is.

‘I don’t know when they’re going to take the money out. If Bromley Council had done their job right, they’d be making fines everyday but they don’t.

‘He shouldn’t have been grabbing people. I think I’m going to appeal it.’

Bromley Council, which has fined 12 people £6,129 for littering since September, said in a statement: ‘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.’

Last year, a woman was followed and fined £100 for ‘dropping a cigarette butt’ on the ground in Bexhill, East Sussex.

Leona Moon, 54, was at on a bench with a friend in Bexhill, East Sussex, when a council littering enforcer chased her down the seafront.

She put the cigarette end out under her shoe then put it in her pocket at around 2.30pm on May 16.

But the Rother District Council employee insisted he saw her leave it on the ground and gave her with a £100 ticket, which the authority refused to refund.

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