Man fined £155 for dropping cigarette in town centre

James O'Donoghue, aged 22, pleaded guilty to a charge of littering when the case was heard by magistrates.

He was given a fixed penalty notice when he was caught throwing away the cigarette butt by a Stafford Borough Council enforcement officer in the town's Gaolgate Street. Gary Finn, prosecuting for the Borough Council, said O'Donoghue had not paid the £75 penalty and that was why the case had come to court.

O'Donoghue, of Talbot Street, Smethwick, was given a £35 fine, ordered to pay £100 court costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

The court was told O'Donoghue, who is on benefits, had pleaded guilty to the charge by post. Magistrates heard he had not had enough money to pay the littering fixed penalty notice.

The offence happened in February.

It's not the first time that fines for dropping cigarette butts have been so costly.

In April of last year, two women were ordered to pay £545 each after dropping cigarette butts out of a car window in a Cannock car park.

£545 pales in comparison to the £765 a man was ordered to pay in July 2011, after dropping cigarette butts in the same McDonald's car park as the two women in 2013. However, it was a lucky escape for him: the maximum he could have been fined was £2,500.

Back in August 2010 pensioner Sheila Martin insisted she'd rather go to jail than pay her £75 fine for dropping cigarette ash.