You could almost fill an encyclopaedia with news stories of petty littering fines.

Pin him down on facts by asking for the precise numbers of prosecutions, for $60 littering fines, the Council has imposed in the last twelve months.

But he denied it was a way for the council to make more money, adding that cash from littering fines was ring-fenced and goes back into educating people about it.

The first such raid, in late October in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, collected $105,000 in littering fines from 15 businesses, two of which had to close temporarily, Sheriff Crimaldi said.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing range of interventions in personal behaviour: Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, littering fines, public disturbance offences and dozens of local bans on drinking in public parks.

Today, the sheriff's primary duties are enforcing court-ordered judgments and fines, including unpaid parking tickets and littering fines, and collecting judgments from reluctant losers in private lawsuits, said John George, the Sheriff's executive assistant.

A1 Sheriff raids 11 Bronx stores to collect littering fines B2 After agreement, Howard Beach attack case comes to an end B3 Defense calls the jogger case a racist witch hunt B3 The zebra mussel is in the Hudson.