Woman fined €1,700 for flicking cigarette from car window

It’s as authorities clamp down on ‘grime crime’

A woman in East London has been fined a hefty £1,500 (equal to €1,740) after flicking a cigarette on the ground from her car window. The fine is part of a clampdown from councils and authorities across the country on so-called ‘grime crime.’ Enforcement officers for Barking and Dagenham Council caught a driver dropping a cigarette out of the window of a Nissan Duke, MyLondon reports. This is a littering offence under section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The owner of the vehicle, Maurine Bateesa, failed to provide details of the driver at the time the offence was committed, leading the council to hit her with a fine. Bateesa, from Barking, was issued with a legal notice to provide details of who was behind the wheel at the time of the offence. But despite a reminder and a notice of intended prosecution being sent, she failed to respond, and the case was referred to court.