Smoker slapped with £500 fine after dropping a single cigarette butt in the street
A SMOKER has been slapped with a £500 fine after dropping a single cigarette butt in the street.
Jamie Miller ignored letters about the original £80 fine which meant he was brought before the courts.
This lead to Miller having his fine increased to £230 plus £270 in costs, the .
Miller was among 200 people who were fined as part of a crackdown of littering in Nuneaton and Bedworth.
This included two people being fined after they were caught spitting on the streets.
Cigarette butts can harm animals, according to Geoff Grewcock, founder of the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary.
He said: "Cigarette butts are mistaken for food, particularly by hedgehogs and birds; they then get stuck om their throats and choke them.
"If they are digested, they are toxic and the butts will rot inside their stomachs and eventually poison and kill them.
It was revealed this week that social smoking is as bad for your heart as lighting up every day.
New "striking" findings show those who puff away in the pub with a pint at the weekends are “well on the path” to life-threatening heart disease.
But, it’s not all bad news.
Casual smokers can avoid heart disease, and the risk of heart attack or stroke, by stubbing out their habit, experts said.
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