Wolverhampton litter louts told to pay hundreds of pounds by court

Six new litter enforcers handed out 401 on-the-spot fines in just one week in the city in August, raking in more than £30,000.

And this week, 10 people were summoned to appear at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court after refusing to accept their £75 fines.

Five people were found guilty in their absence, and ordered to pay a total of £345 each in fines, court costs and the victim surcharge.

Ingrid Formon, 44, from Darby Avenue, Claregate; Sandeep Kaur, 32, of Rudge Avenue, Deansfield; Geeta Sharma, of Pattingham Road, Perton; Vajalit Singh, 51, of Mount Pleasant, Bilston; and Sasha Struk, 20, from Ogley Road, Brownhills, were those prosecuted.

Sam Gory, 22, of Drancy Avenue, Willenhall, and Michelle Greatbatch, 22, of Crowther Street, Park Village, Wolverhampton, admitted their guilt to the same charge by way of letter, and had their punishments deferred until December 1 and February 5 respectively.

Darius Kilmavious, 24, of Plym Close, Wednesfield; Royston Roberts, 53, of Bath Street, Wolverhampton city centre; and Clare Cox, 32, of Brookside, Telford, paid their fines of £75 before they were due to appear court.

All were caught littering on August 12 or 13.

Between Monday, August 10 and Sunday, August 16, the 401 £75 fixed penalty notices that were handed out by the six officers totalled £30,075.

Under the new zero-tolerance approach to littering, officers have come down hard on people dropping litter, chucking cigarette ends or letting their dogs foul without picking it up.

Kingdom Security Ltd is working on the scheme with the council, and as part of the deal, the council will pay the company £45 per notice issued and keep £30 for itself.

Councillor Steve Evans, cabinet member for city environment, denied that it was just a money making exercise, and insisted the crackdown was aimed at making the city a cleaner, safer place.

He said at the time: "The money we receive will be reinvested into the cleaner, greener, safer city project.

"It was brought in to try and prevent people from littering our city centres and town centres and high streets and I hope we get to the stage where they don't have to issue any fixed penalty notices because that means people are respecting our areas and respecting the bins that are there, that's all we want them to do.

"It's not a money making exercise, it is trying to get people just to be respectful and have the right behaviour."

The scheme is set to run for an initial trial period of 12 months.