A 38 year-old man was fined on 22nd Jan 2015 for repeatedly flicking cigarettes butts out of his flats. He was fined $600 per charge for 33 charges and sentenced to five hours of Corrective Work Order (CWO) for one charge. This was the highest fine meted out for high-rise littering to date.
He was caught after National Environment Agency (NEA) deployed a surveillance camera in between November 2014 and March 2014, which captured images of him throwing cigarette butts out of his windows 34 times. The NEA has received five complaints earlier on about high-rise littering at Block 224C Compassvale Walk over a period of 12 months beginning in June 2013 which though town councils and grassroots organisation serving the area reach out to residents to educate them but the problem persisted.
NEA Deployed Cameras To Curb High-rise Littering Acts
In 2014, NEA deployed cameras at close to 600 such locations and took 206 enforcement actions including fines and CWOs against offenders caught on action.
Heavier Penalties For Offenders (Revised in 2014)
Environmental Public Health Act amended the law in 2014, doubling the maximum penalty for littering-related offences to S$2,000 for first time offenders. Fines were also increase to $4,000 for second time offenders and S$10,000 for third and subsequent convictions.
Those who encounter high-rise littering problems can call the NEA’s 24 hours hotline at 1800-CALL-NEA (1800-2255-632)
Source from Today Online.
