A woman was left fuming after a cigarette end thrown from her car window cost her £100.

Samantha Dunne was even arrested at her Bradford home and taken to a police station.

Officers from Bradford Council's visible services team spotted a cigarette end being thrown from the passenger side window of Dunne's Vauxhall Corsa on Little Horton Lane in June last year.

And as the car was registered to her name, 33-year-old Dunne, who does not hold a full driving licence, was held responsible for the dropped butt.

She was sent a £50 fixed penalty notice after the officer traced the car to her home address. Dunne told Bradford magistrates yesterday she telephoned the Council as soon as she got the letter.

"I asked them for some evidence to be sent to me and I would gladly pay the fine," she said. But the next thing she knew about the matter was when the police came knocking at her door and she was taken to the station.

In court Dunne, of Haycliffe Lane, Great Horton, pleaded guilty to a charge of depositing controlled waste on land and was fined £50 and made to pay £50 court costs.

Dennis Schulman, prosecuting on behalf of Bradford Council, had asked for over £600 in costs and told the court that it costs the local authority £308,000 a year to clean up the 3,500 tonnes of cigarette related waste which is dropped on the city's streets.

"The citizens of Bradford have made it very clear that the visible quality of the environment is very important," he added.

The court was told it is the owner of the vehicle who is responsible if any rubbish is thrown out of the window.

Speaking outside the court, Dunne said: "I was incredibly nervous when I came to court. I even brought the £50 hoping they'd just let me pay it. When I heard that the costs could be more than £600 I nearly passed out."

On top of the £100, Dunne claims the incident has cost her the same again in lost earnings after she had to take time off from her job at R & R Formings in Skipton. "I'm not saying for a second that dropping butts on the ground is not wrong but surely a much better way to spend the money would be to provide more bins and ashtrays on the streets rather than have people going around spying and making accusations."

Miss Dunne was prosecuted as part of Bradford Council's zero tolerance policy on littering. In February 2004, the council launched a special enforcement team to crack down on litterbugs.