Two fined for littering cigarettes in Weston-super-Mare

Kara Berryman, of Stoddens Road, Burnham-on-Sea, was found guilty of depositing a cigarette outside Sovereign Shopping Centre in Weston-super-Mare’s High Street “without reasonable excuse”.

Berryman, 35, committed the offence on July 25, 2021.

She  was sentenced in her absence at North Somerset Magistrates’ Court on Friday, March 11.

She was fined £220 and ordered to pay court costs of £150 and a £34 surcharge to fund victim services.

She has until April 11 to pay her £404 court bill.

Craig Griffiths deposited his cigarette outside a tattoo studio on Baker Street. Picture: Google Street View

A man from Bridgwater, 36-year-old Craig Griffiths, was also fined by the court last Friday.

On July 23, Griffiths, of Culverhay Close, deposited a cigarette outside Black Horse Tattoo on Baker Street “other than into a waste receptacle”.

Griffiths pleaded guilty and was fined £92.

He must also pay costs of £150 and a £34 surcharge, giving him a total bill of £276 to pay by April 11.

Their court documents say they were prohibited from depositing their cigarettes outside the shopping centre and tattoo studio “by a public spaces protection order”.

Under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, “it is an offence for a person without reasonable excuse to do anything that the person is prohibited from doing by a public spaces protection order, or to fail to comply with a requirement to which the person is subject under a public spaces protection order”.

Both Berryman and Griffiths were issued with fixed penalty notices before appearing in court.

Last year, North Somerset Council introduced a team of enforcement officers to deal with breaches of its public spaces protection orders.

The scheme saw fines handed out to people for urinating in public, walking dogs without a lead, and littering.