TWO smokers have been fined £100 each after they dropped cigarettes on the pavement.

Sam Ruddock, 19, of High Street, Brackley, and 39-year-old Angus Wheeler, of Coopers Gate, Banbury, both failed to appear at Banbury Magistrates’ Court on Friday, July 8.

In their absence they were fined £100 each and ordered to pay £100 court costs and a £15 victims’ surcharge.

The court was told Cherwell District Council enforcement officers spotted Wheeler dropping a cigarette outside HMV in Bridge Street on January 26.

On February 11, Ruddock was spotted by the same officers dropping a cigarette nearby, just outside Marks & Spencer, instead of using the nearby cigarette bin.

The men were given on the spot fine of £75, but these were not paid.

Cherwell’s deputy leader George Reynolds said: “We know most people want clean streets and that is what we try to give them.

“The problem is that when people persistently drop litter, despite the presence of numerous bins and lamppost ash trays, it becomes a little like painting the Forth Bridge.

“Litter, especially cigarette butts, is very expensive to clear up.

“When our enforcement officers catch people littering we make sure they take swift and decisive action.”