An environmental worker is facing a criminal prosecution for littering after dropping cherry stones among some trees.

Jeff Hughes, 48, dropped three of four cherry pips thinking they would be eaten by the birds or grow into a cherry tree, but to his surprise he was approached by officers from Kingdom Security and told that he had broken the law and would have to pay an £80 fine.

He refused and is now being taken to court by Wirral Council, which employs Kingdom to hand out fines on its behalf.

It comes after a Telegraph investigation found the members of the public are almost twenty times more likely to be fined for littering where councils employ private enforcement companies.

The fact that companies are paid by keeping a proportion of the fine means that they are "incentivised" to hand out more tickets, campaigners have said as they call for a "common sense" approach which would include allowing people to pick up their rubbish.