Smokers ordered to pay more than £4,000 for dropping cigarette ends in Sunderland

A total of ten defendants were ordered to pay up to £469 each after being convicted at South Tyneside Magistrates Court.

Prosecutor Tony Southwick, on behalf of Sunderland City Council, told magistrates that in each case the defendant had been seen discarding a cigarette end on the ground by a council Neighbourhood Warden.

Fixed penalty notices for £150 had been issued and followed up with reminders and letters warning that a prosecution was possible but no payment had been made.

The following were all fined £150 and ordered to pay costs of £235 and a £34 victim surcharge – a total of £419. The case was proved in their absence unless otherwise stated:

Ali Heydrian, 40, of Condercum Road, Newcastle, who pleaded guilty by post:

Rebecca Twinn, 29, of Oswald Close, Durham;

Alisha Savage, 19, of Morris Terrace, Houghton;

Christina Pickering, 52, Hutton Street, Sunderland

Barbara Ryan, 44, Margaret Street, Seaham;

Kerry Ann Moore, 35, of Collingwood Street, South Shields.

Yvonne Johnson, 60, Ramilies Road, Sunderland, and Stephanie Thornton, 29, of Hadleigh Road, were also convicted in their absence but had been seen to commit the offence at the same time, so were ordered to pay less individually in investigation costs.

The pair were fined £150 and ordered to pay £115 costs and £34 victim surcharge - a total £299 each.

Claire Louise Bainbridge, 45, of Gambia Square, Sunderland, and Katie Innes, 34, of Cairo Street, Hendon were both convicted in their absence of littering but also of providing false or inaccurate information to an investigating officer.

Mr Southwick told the court Bainbridge had given her first name as ‘Faye’ while Innes had provided an address in St Leonard Street.

Magistrates agreed not to impose any separate penalty for the second charge but to taken it into condideration as an aggravating factor when sentencing the littering offence and increase the fine accordingly.

They were each fined £200 with £235 costs and £34 victim surcharge – a total of £469.

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