FIVE HUNDRED litter louts have been reported to prosecutors for not paying their fines.

They now face being taken to court to stump up the £50 penalty after they were caught littering Glasgow's streets.

As reported in the Evening Times, 8000 people have been hit with on-the-spot penalties.

Just under 60% of the litter bugs have now paid up - a slightly higher percentage than those who fork out for similar fines such as for illegal parking.

But the rest - around 3200 - have refused to pay.

Clean Glasgow bosses today revealed 502 have now been referred to the procurator fiscal, with 710 awaiting referral and three offenders already waiting for a date to appear in court.

The status of the remaining outstanding fines are either within the 14-day period which people have to pay or are the subject of appeals.

In December, the Evening Times named and shamed thousands of culprits caught dropping litter.

Council bosses said those who had not paid wouldn't get away with it. And the figures for the numbers reported to the fiscal show they meant it.

Glasgow City Council Leader Steven Purcell said: "We are committed to enforcement as part of the Clean Glasgow campaign, and as such we are determined that offenders will not be allowed to get away with non-payment of fines.

"We will continue to refer all unpaid fines from over 16s to the procurator fiscal and work with under-16s who don't pay their fines on alternative sanctions such as community work.

"Clean Glasgow is primarily an education campaign, however, a tough line on enforcement shows we are serious about improving the cleanliness of our city and that those who continue to disregard the law will not go unpunished."

The fines are part of the Clean Glasgow campaign to tidy up the city, which began a year ago and is supported by the Evening Times.

They are issued by uniformed officers - dubbed mean teams' - to anyone spotted dropping litter.

The latest move has been a controversial plan to target young litterbugs with officers patrolling outside secondary schools and issuing £50 fines to kids dropping rubbish.

The campaign has also seen 200 new city centre bins fitted with ash trays; neighbourhood clean-up programmes; 11 new mobile CCTV units; a 28-strong anti-graffiti squad and 11 mobile graffiti clean-up units.