Operation ‘Clean Up’ gets serious! £712.96 fine for dropping a cigarette butt.

Operation Clean-up, Flintshire County Council’s scheme to clean up the environment is continuing its prosecutions for non-payment of fines.

The operation carried out a successful prosecution against Mr Peter Jenkins from Flint on Thursday 23 January for failing to pay a fixed penalty notice for a littering offence.

Mr Jenkins was issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice of £75 for a littering offence where he dropped a cigarette butt on the street outside B&M Stores in Flint on the 24 September 2013, which he did not pay.

He has now been fined a total of £712.96 including costs.

Operation Clean Up started in April of this year and has been continuing the good work of Operation Pooper Snooper, which targeted irresponsible dog owners. The revised operation also now includes the offences of littering, fly tipping and graffiti. 

There is a zero tolerance approach to these crimes within Flintshire and enforcement team members from the Council have been undertaking patrols across the county, spending time patrolling different towns and villages, with culprits caught being issued with a fixed penalty notice (FPN) of £75.

Councillor Kevin Jones, Cabinet Member for Waste Strategy, Public Protection and Leisure said:

“This is an on-going campaign and if the fixed penalty notices issued by Operation Clean-up are not paid then we will prosecute. If the initial FPN is not paid then the fines are even higher as we can see in this case. Most residents behave responsibly but there are still a minority who fail to pick up their litter, or to clean up after their dog. 

“This strengthened targeted approach to enforcement sends out the strongest possible message that dog fouling, littering, fly tipping and graffiti is anti-social and will not be tolerated.”