A man’s pasta meal cost him £230 after he dumped it on the ground.

Then he told council officials he was trying to feed the birds.

Simon Fillies, 53, of Dickson Road, Dover, was found guilty of littering.

He was fined £150, with a £30 victim surcharge, and was ordered to pay £50 costs.

On September 5, an officer from Dover District Council’s Community Safety Unit saw Fillies drop the pasta salad and a plastic fork into the gutter.

The incident was reported to the council’s environmental crime team after Fillies left.

Dover District Council spokesman Andy Steele said: “Mr Fillies was interviewed, and said he had dropped the food to feed the birds but could not account for the plastic fork.”

He was issued with a fixed penalty notice for littering. When that was not paid, DDC took the matter to court.

Fillies was fined and convicted at Canterbury Magistrates Court on March 28.

Councils regularly publicise successful littering and dumping prosecutions as a warning to others.