Gosport man fined £315 by court for littering

Simon Grant, from Gosport, was spotted dropping a cigarette butt in Lawrence Square outside Gosport town hall, on October 6, last year.

He was given a £75 penalty notice by a Gosport Borough Council enforcement officer and given the chance to reduce the fine to £50 if he paid within a week.

But Grant, of Elson Road, failed to pay and was prosecuted at Portsmouth Magistrates Court last week.

The 47-year-old failed to attend and was convicted in his absence.

He was fined £220 and told to pay costs of £65, plus a victim surcharge of £30. In total, he was ordered to pay £315.

Councillor Graham Burgess, chairman of the council’s community board, said: ‘This may seem a lot of money for a littering offence, but that’s what the court decided. He had the option of paying £50.

‘We’d rather no-one dropped litter and no-one got fined but we need to discourage people who throw their rubbish down in the street and show them there are consequences.

‘A cigarette butt isn’t much, but if everyone dropped a small amount of litter we would end up with a major problem.’