A GANG of guerrilla teenagers known as the Ciggy Busters, who confiscated cigarettes from smokers in Chatham High Street, have sparked a heated debate.

Sixth form students at The Hundred of Hoo School filmed an anti-smoking movie with their mentor, media artist Margherita Gramegna, in which they mobbed unsuspecting smokers and nabbed their cigarettes.

Organisers said that far from encountering hacked-off nicotine addicts, the response they received was warm. The victims, they said, were willing participants.

Italian artist Margherita, who moved to Rochester in 1995 having lived and worked in Venice, Rome and London, said: "The public response was great. Even smokers were saying it was quite interesting.

"I knew we could not really go and film in public and attack people in that way and take goods off of them, so we devised a cunning plan.

"We planted some people and we started with them. People were watching and following us and at the end we tried with some other people and they were very happy."

Rachel Noxon, Medway's tobacco control strategic co-ordinator, said that the exchanges between students and smokers were "carefully stage-managed".

Kent police in Medway were made aware of the planned filming, prior to the event taking place.

However, the stunt ignited anger in the selection of shoppers The News spoke to in Chatham High Street, who would not be happy for their cigarettes to be confiscated.

One shopper, Dan, a smoker, said: "If it happened to me I would probably slap them.

"I know the damage it is doing but at the end of the day, it is my own choice."

Keith Youngson, a 67-year-old lung cancer sufferer and non-smoker from Chatham, was clear about how he would have reacted if he was a Ciggy Buster victim.

"I would have been in the nick," said the retired contracts manager.

Margherita, who has worked with the Hundred of Hoo School since visiting with a fellow artist four years ago, said she proposed the film to her students after speaking to a friend in the Public Health Directorate who said the high level in smoking was a problem for them.

Support also came from A Better Medway – a joint initiative between the council and NHS Medway that encourages healthy living – which part-funded the project, paying for filming equipment.

The project took the group of students, which varied in number between seven and twelve, depending on exam commitments, three months to put together.

Award-winning film director Margherita, who has exhibited at The Cannes Film Festival, said: "I basically mentored the whole project but it was them that came up with the ideas and enthusiasm, and desire.

"They said the adverts do not work so we are going to take a much stronger approach without being aggressive or violent.

"They decided to make an image for themselves and they called themselves the Ciggy Busters.

"We were going down the street grabbing cigarettes from people and running off.

"It was so funny."

The students gave out information on how to stop smoking with leaflets.

The video can be seen by searching "Ciggy Busters" on YouTube.