Litter warden caught boasting he will hand £80 fines out ‘like smarties’ to hit bonus of £5 for EVERY ticket after first four dished out
The trainee, from Bexley, London, was recorded saying he will dish out as many £80 fines as possible
A COUNCIL litter warden was caught boasting he will hand fines out “like smarties” to hit his bonus.
The trainee, from Bexley, London, was recorded saying he will dish out as many £80 fines as possible to reap in his £5 per fine bonus.
Wardens are paid £5 for each ticket they hand out after the first four, a investigation found.
Security firm Kingdom Services pays workers £9.47-an-hour and gives them £5 bonuses on every ticket after the first four they issue each day, a manager told an undercover reporter.
The reporter was also told to trick people into walking away from litter, so they can legally issue a ticket.
One trainer tells workers: “Obviously we are here to make money.”
Another says the company turns down contracts because “they are just not profitable”.
They add: “They want it all to be pink and fluffy and they want to give people warnings and cautions.”
Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Enforcement can change people’s behaviour but it needs to be fair and have the public on our side.”
In the programme, which aired last night, wardens are seen threatening to call the police unless people cough up.
One woman is falsely accused of leaving dog poo on the ground, another is fined for pouring coffee dregs down a drain and a third is given an £80 fine for “fly-tipping” when she puts the bins outside her own home.
Kingdom denied the bonus, saying they have a “discretionary competence allowance” – not a paid incentive.
It said officers are trained to only issue fines to people they “reasonably believe have committed an offence” and it would investigate any “unprofessional behaviour or misconduct”.
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