Over 6,500 reported for smoking indoors

OVER 6,500 people have been reported by police for smoking indoors in public places during the first year of a blanket smoking ban, police said yesterday.

Police said they had carried out almost 50,000 checks at various establishments across the island, issuing 6,449 on the spot fines.

An additional 83 cases were sent to court.

From the 6,540 people reported, 2,336 were proprietors, 4,174 were customers, and 29 worked at the establishments.

The majority of those reported by police were Cypriot – 5,515 – while 1,025 were foreign nationals. Most, 5,104 were men.

Among those caught smoking illegally, six were minors police said.

Police said most violators were reported in bars, betting shops, night clubs and coffee shops.

Four people were booked for smoking in a public building and another four were caught in medical facilities such as clinics.

Limassol topped the list of offenders with almost 2,965 on the spot fines and 28 cases sent to court.

Police said they will continue their checks, stressing that issuing fines was not an end in itself since the “ultimate goal is to consolidate an anti-smoking conscience.”

Despite the best efforts of the force, the law is systematically and blatantly flouted all over Cyprus, including the place were it was passed – parliament itself.

A parliamentary employee was seen yesterday puffing away in the indoor cafeteria in the company of four other people, including a man who appeared to be a police officer, as the tag on his jacket indicated.



The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.