Dropping litter has cost a Wolverhampton man £175 after he was taken to court.

Litterbug Gareth McNally was initially issued a £60 fixed penalty notice when he was spotted discarding a piece of cellophane on the ground close to Wolverhampton train station.

But having failed to pay, that amount has now more than doubled as legal costs and fines were imposed.

At Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday, the 29-year-old admitting depositing litter in Railway Drive in September last year.

Mrs Donna Richards, prosecuting on behalf of the city council, told the court: “On September 11, a principal enforcement officer from the council was heading towards the train station, in Railway Drive, when he observed the defendant drop a piece of cellophane on the floor and continue on his way.

“The officer introduced himself, explaining that it was an offence to drop litter.

“The defendant explained he hadn’t got time to stop as his daughter was ill.”

She added: “A fixed penalty notice of £60 was issued which today remains unpaid.”

McNally, of Hailes Park Close, in Parkfields, who was unrepresented in court, said he had sight problems in his left eye which may have contributed to the offence.

“I’m blind in my left eye and was walking to the train station and took the cellophane off and as I was putting it in my bag, it’s come off and because of the blind spot I didn’t see it,” he said.

“I do admit I was saying to the officer I was going to see my daughter because she was ill.”

McNally said he had phoned up to pay the fixed penalty notice but as he was on benefits, did not have the means to pay it all at once.

District Judge Michael Wheeler fined McNally £60, and ordered him to pay £100 towards legal costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Last year, the cuty council issued 407 fixed penalty notices for litter dropping.

Anyone aged over 14 who drops litter in a public place in the city can be issued with a £60 fixed penalty notice.

A maximum fine of £2,500 can be imposed at magistrates court if the penalty is not paid.

Council chiefs have said littering is high on peoples’ agendas and they will continue to crackdown on people who drop litter on the city’s streets.

In October last year, Wayne Lacy, of Bickley Road, in Bilston, was fined £120 after being spotted by a security officer dropping litter from the window of a parked car at Bentley Bridge, in Wednesfield.

Lacy, who was convicted in his absence, had failed to pay a fixed penalty fine of £60.

He was ordered to stump up legal costs of £382.12.