One cigarette just cost this smoker more than $1600
A man will have to pay more than $1600 for flicking a lit cigarette butt out his car window in Melbourne's north.
It comes after he lost a court bid fighting a $634 fine from Victoria's environmental watchdog for the flicked butt, reported by a passer-by at Coburg on January 25 last year.
Broadmeadows Magistrates Court found the driver guilty of littering under the Environment Protection Act and ordered him to pay the infringement notice as well as the EPA's court costs of $1000.
"Cigarette butt litter pollutes our roadsides and chokes our waterways," EPA chief executive Cathy Wilkinson said after the decision.
"EPA counts on members of the public to report people who flick their butts out of car windows."
More than 11,000 Victorians copped fines totalling more than $5 million in the last financial year for discarding litter, mostly cigarette butts, from their vehicles.
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