A 39-year-old biker is angry after being fined £50 for dropping a cigarette end in the road.

Kenneth Williams has become the first man in the borough of Ashford to be fined under new anti-social behaviour litterbug rules and council chiefs are warning others to clean up their act or face the penalty.

Ironically, Mr Williams says he was on his way to get patches to help him quit the smoking habit when he took "a last drag" while he waited for the level-crossing gates in the village of Wye to open.

An Ashford council parking warden spotted Mr Williams stub out his cigarette on the road, took his registration number, and a week later the fixed penalty notice - numbered 0001 - dropped through the letterbox of his home in Canterbury Road, Willesborough.

Mr Williams said: "I was stunned. At first I thought it was a joke but when I went to the council to query it they told me I had no option but to pay," said the former farm stockman, now retired on medical grounds.

"I asked them to prove their case with a picture or some DNA off the fag butt but they said they didn't need any evidence, other than the warden's report."

Mr Williams says he is going to stump up the fine for stubbing out but insists it is difficult to attach an ashtray to a motorbike.

"I told them I don't have an ashtray the bike and the bloke said I ought to have put the butt in my pocket. It's madness."

Mr Williams, who has been smoking for 20 years, went with his 43-year-old wife Andrea to collect a doctor's referral to obtain nicotine patches. He has no intention to carry on smoking once the fine is paid.

"We have since done a test and we are officially classed as non-smokers now so this makes the fine even harder to take," stressed Mr Williams.

It was initially thought the fine was issued by the new Kent County Council-funded Wye Community Warden Liz Lovatt but the paperwork comes from Ashford Council as the local 'Litter Authority' under the Environmental Protection Act.

"I don't know who the warden was or where he was hiding. I didn't see anyone at the level crossing. He must have been hiding in a bush," added Mr Williams.

An Ashford Council spokesman said: "This was the first ticket issued under the new littering anti social behaviour rules and any council official can issue the fines.

"The message is that if you drop litter, cigarette ends or allow your dogs to foul the pavement you will be nicked. People have to wake up the fact that you just can't litter and get away with it."