Forum Topic

£500 fine for dropping cigarette butt!

Presumably an April Fools' day prank message??Lucky I don't smoke though, just in case it's for real

Davey Harris ● 22d19 Comments

Surely the offence has to be entirely caught on body camera otherwise the offence can not be supported in any way.

Julian Pavey ● 9d

I thought he lives in Barnes? He was always going on about how wonderful it was living there compared to the crime ridden, traffic choked hell Chiswick had become.Maybe Barnes is merely a pied-a-terre for him, and he actually lives in Germany.Thanks for the explanation anyway.

Andrew Jones ● 9d

It's a bit of an in joke I'm afraid. Steve Taylor claims not to qualify for a Freedom Pass even though he is actually 84! His grumpy old man posts in this thread providing ample evidence for this fact.

Mark Evans ● 9d

Methinks someone's being a bit pedantic Mark.Mind you, Anna did ask if anyone else thought I had an anal personality ;)

Andrew Jones ● 12d

Not any more Richard, contactless payment with a debit or credit card is available at all stations.

Mark Evans ● 12d

The experience in Ealing is illustrative. Although fines are much lower, the previous contractor Kingdom was very keen to dole them out and there were several quite ridiculous cases. In one a women was fined because she poured the contents of her coffee cup down a drain before putting it a bin and in another a family received a fine because their children were giving food to ducks in a park.Kingdom was sacked last year but FPN's issued for this sort of offence have risen to the third highest in the country with APCOA now handling the contract.The enforcement officers aren't highly paid and do come under pressure to hand out fines. It's human nature under those circumstances to avoid fining people who are bigger than you and look instead for soft targets.They don't have any powers of detention so if someone simply refuses to engage with them there is nothing they can do. Therefore fines will tend to be paid by people who are more reflexively law-abiding. There is also no formal appeals process so  even if you do think the fine is preposterous, you probably still have to pay it.

Anita Blake ● 14d

You used to be able to buy small tins to stub your cigarette butt out in and take it home with you.

Philippa Bond ● 17d

the thing that gets me - you get burgled, have your car stolen, or your bike - you're lucky to get a crime number. Walk into a shop and walk out with £200 worth of goods, nobody will say a word. Drop a cigarette butt, £500 fine. Real criminals get a free run, while minor offenders get nailed.

Davey Harris ● 18d

"£500.00 may be excessive but it's hard to see how somebody would 'accidentally' drop a cigarette butt". I suppose it's vaguely possible to drop one (!) accidentally, but if this is pointed out to you by a plastic policeman, and you pick it up, that should be the end of it. Often, it isn't - particularly if you happen to be a visitor to this wonderful country of ours. 

Brian Coyle ● 20d

I don't know about this,seems a little disproportionate if you ask me and I don't smoke.

Keith Iddon ● 20d

Cigarette butts are very poisonous as are batteries which are also a fire hazard and need to be disposed of very carefully and are often encased in plastic and difficult/impossible to extract.https://www.oceancare.org/en/stories_and_news/cigarette-butts-pollution/I've seen collection containers in Sainsbury's for vapes (which contain lithium batteries).

Philippa Bond ● 20d

Do they fine people for not disposing of batteries responsibly, I see them thrown over fences etc., they are a fire hazard.

Janice Evans ● 20d

£500.00 may be excessive but it's hard to see how somebody would 'accidentally' drop a cigarette butt.

Anne England ● 21d

Freedom Pass holders still need an Oyster card if they want to travel in the morning rush hour.

Richard Greenhough ● 21d

Steve doesn't need an Oyster Card, he has a Freedom Pass.

Mark Evans ● 21d

There is risk of fire with the dry weather.

Janice Evans ● 21d

So were you the Stephen Taylor who dropped your Oyster card on Wellesley Road last Saturday ?

Richard Greenhough ● 21d

Hope this is true. Other countries do it. The UK is a rubbish dump. They should start fining people £500 for spitting too. The people enforcing the law need to be paid loads so hopefully they will get fat cat bonuses based on their ‘catches’

Steve Taylor ● 21d

Sadly it appears not. I don't smoke but I do own a dog. I'm scrupulous in cleaning up after her but over decades of dog ownership there have been one or two occasions when I have not noticed them doing their business and had my attention drawn to this politely by other dog walkers. As we've seen with parking enforcement in Ealing, the people issuing these fines will have targets to meet and therefore will be lurking in local parks waiting for someone to make this kind of mistake.

Anita Blake ● 22d