A COUNCIL street cleaner has been fined £50 by his own bosses after being spotted dropping a single cigarette butt – while clearing town centre streets of litter.

Rob Sumner, 27, an employee of Maidstone council for the past five years, has become a familiar sight to shoppers around the streets of the county town.

Each week, Mr Sumner collects hundreds of cigarette butts discarded by shoppers and office workers as well as litter and umpteen clumps of discarded chewing gum.

But his daily efforts counted for nothing when a warden, also employed by the council, spotted him placing a cigarette on the ground in front of his cleaning machine after taking a break from his duties at the bottom of Gabriel’s Hill.

The warden immediately swooped on Mr Sumner, asking for his name and address before giving him an official warning.

The cleaner was later hauled before managers to explain his actions.

But Mr Sumner isn’t bitter. He said: “I had just had a cigarette and put it down in front of the brushes of the machine ready to clean up.

“I must collect hundreds of them every day and just had a slip of mind.

“The warden was within his rights to tell me. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have put it on the ground.”

Maidstone council has issued 140 fixed penalty notices by its street environment officers since launching its zero tolerance litter crusade in May 2005.

A council spokesman said: “Maidstone people want a clean and tidy borough. It is one of our priorities and we have put more resources into it.

“We have a zero tolerance policy on littering and issue tickets to everyone – staff and residents alike. We treat everybody the same.”