GIRLS FINED £50 FOR DROPPING CIGARETTES

Two girls have been fined £50 each for discarding cigarettes outside Elvet Riverside, even though no cigarette disposal bins have been provided in the area.

Lydia and Leonora from Hild Bede were outraged after officials told them off for dropping the cigarette butts when smoking on Monday.

“We were smoking between lectures,” reports Lydia, “and we threw our cigarette butts by the bicycle rack where there’s actually hundreds of butts.

“We turned away to go to our other lecture, and then they said “Excuse me, ladies, did you just drop that cigarette butt?””

After apologizing and offering to pick up the cigarette butt the girls were told to come inside.

“It was really embarrassing because everyone was staring at us, including others who were smoking. We were taken into the office in the lobby of Elvet Riverside and they started filling out this stupid little chit. They then said we had to pay the fine in ten days or else we’d go to court!

“We offered to pick them up and I pointed out that there isn’t actually a bin there. They just said they’d see what they could do about it.”

Lydia reports that the officials were not going to accept the lack of a bin as a mitigating circumstance. 

“They had actually been standing there for quite a while so I think that they were watching to see if we actually dropped the butts, which seems particularly strict. The situation could have been remedied, but they wouldn’t even let us do that.”

Lydia told The Tab that she feels as though they were dealt with very harshly, especially as there were many others smoking there at the time.

This story has highlighted the need for cigarette bins in the area so that more unsuspecting students do not continue to get caught out.

Please do come forward if you have any similar stories to share.