A SMOKER was handed a £100 fine for throwing a cigarette butt out of her car window in Southampton.

Tammy Ridges, 21, appeared before Southampton magistrates to plead guilty to the littering charge.

Miss Ridges is the latest victim of strict anti-litter laws introduced by Southampton City Council three years ago.

When a letter demanding payment of a £50 fine landed on her doormat, Miss Ridges couldn't understand what it was.

She didn't realise that on September 22, 2003 an eagle-eyed council officer had spotted the tiny flying cigarette butt.

The officer had followed her Renault 5 along West Quay Road in Southampton, made a note of her number plate, checked the details with the DVLA and issued the fine.

And because Miss Ridges, of Woodlands Road, Woodlands, in the New Forest, was going on holiday and couldn't make the payment within two weeks, she ended up in court.

Miss Ridges, who works at Norwich Union, has never been to court before and her car is full of litter because she never drops it in the street.

She said: "I just can't believe this has happened. This has been a scary experience. I just don't think dropping a cigarette butt calls for coming to court. I think there's a lot of worse things that you can do.

"When I told my friends they thought it was a joke. But now I've told them all not to do the same thing.

"I'll carry on smoking but I won't be throwing the butts out the window, I can't afford to."

On behalf of Southampton City Council, solicitor Mary Douglas told the court: "The council has a zero-tolerance policy towards litter. Cigarette butts amount to 40 per cent of all street litter and are harmful to the environment. They contain chemicals, including arsenic and hydrogen cyanide, and they are not biodegradable."

A spokesman for the pro-smokers' action group FOREST said: "It seems quite a steep fine but quite frankly litter is litter and I don't have a great deal of sympathy. I would not like to see people throwing sweet wrappers out of windows."

Under powers introduced in September 2000, Southampton council's enforcement officers can issue £50 fines either on the spot or by post for littering or dog fouling.