Five Stockton residents must pay a total of more than £1,300 in fines and costs after appearing before Teesside Magistrates. All five had failed to pay fixed penalty notices after being spotted littering by Stockton Council Enforcement Officers or a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO).
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Leon Fearn, aged 20, of Palm Terrace, Port Clarence – on 20 July 2011 a PCSO saw him eat food out of a white plastic carton outside shops in Clarence Street, then place the carton on the pavement before going to a nearby shop. Returning to the same location, he unwrapped ice cream and threw the wrapper onto a nearby grass verge. A waste bin was approximately five yards away. Pleading guilty, Mr Fearn offered no mitigation. He was fined £80 and ordered to pay £35 costs and £15 victim support surcharge.
Alan Lee Walker, aged 19, of Pearson Walk, Stockton, was at the corner of Northcote Street and Yarm Road, Stockton, at approx 00.30hrs when a Stockton Council Enforcement Officer spoke to him about his behaviour, with assistance from a passing police officer, and confirmed his address. As the Enforcement Officer drove away, a CCTV operator recorded Walker dropping sweet wrappers and stick two fingers at the camera, mouthing an obscenity to the person watching. The case was proved in his absence and he was fined £100 with £124.74 costs and £15 victim support surcharge.
On 19 June, a Stockton Council CCTV operator saw Greg James Jarrett, age unknown, of Seaham Close, Norton, drop cardboard food boxes and paper bags from the window of a car in the car park of KFC, Haydock Park Road, Thornaby. The case was proved in his absence and he was fined £350 with £227.66 costs and £15 victim support surcharge.
On 3 August, Katie Nunn, aged 30, of Swale Road, Norton, was seen by a Stockton Council Enforcement Officer in a marked patrol vehicle throwing a cigarette from her car window at Norton Avenue, Stockton. The case was proved in her absence and she was fined £100 with £100 costs and £15 victim support surcharge.
A Council Enforcement Officer in a marked patrol vehicle saw Helen Rutherford, aged 34, of Ravensworth Grove, Hartburn, Stockton, throw a cigarette butt from her car window at Fairfield Road, Stockton, on August 27. The case was proved in her absence and she was fined £100 with £119.64 costs and £15 victim support surcharge.
Councillor Steve Nelson, Stockton Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Community Safety, said: “I’m pleased the Court has hit these offenders where it hurts – in the pocket – but I’d rather they hadn’t littered our streets in the first place.
“There is simply no excuse for leaving litter and we are not prepared to tolerate it. It not only spoils the environment for everyone, and costs the Council Tax payers a fortune to clear it up each year.
“It beggars belief that one of these offenders dropped litter not once, but twice in a few minutes, and both times within a few feet of a litter bin.
“The Council spends more than £1.9 million pounds of public money each year on keeping our streets clean and free of litter, so we have a duty to take action against offenders. It’s a job our Enforcement Officers do very well and the Court has shown today that it will support our efforts.”
