SMOKED OUT BY 'NAZIS'
SMOKED OUT BY 'NAZIS'
A pub landlord says he's going to sell up and move abroad after being landed with a massive legal bill for breaking the smoking ban.
Tony Blows has put his country inn on the market and says he wants to move abroad because Britain has become a "Nazi state".
Mr Blows was fined more than £1,000, and ordered to pay council legal costs of £10,800, after being found guilty of lighting up and letting customers smoke in the Dog Inn at Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire.
"It's a travesty," said Mr Blows, who is one of the first landlords in the country to be taken to court for flouting the ban that came into force in July last year.
"If you get caught smoking drugs in the street, you get off with a slap on the wrist. But you get caught smoking in a pub you get £12,000. I'd probably have got less if I'd been caught with crack cocaine.
We are going to buy abroad
"We've put the pub on the market and we are going to buy abroad. There's no point staying in this country, it's becoming a Nazi state."
A guest who booked to stay at the inn while on a singing course at nearby Dore Abbey told the hearing at Hereford Magistrates Court that he was forced to cut short his stay because customers were lighting up in the bar.
Three council officials claimed that, during a covert visit to the pub in August, they saw Mr Blows and four customers smoking openly as they sat around a table criticising the ban.
Mr Blows pleaded not guilty and his lawyers accused the witnesses of being mistaken or making up evidence against him.
But after a three-day hearing District Judge Morgan said the evidence against Mr Blows was "overwhelming" and told the landlord that council taxpayers expected their local officials to enforce the ban.
He fined Mr Blows £75 for smoking in the pub, £500 on each count of two counts of allowing other people to smoke in the pub, and ordered him to pay legal costs of £10,800.
Mr Andy Tector, Herefordshire Council's head of environmental health and trading standards, said: "I am pleased the judge has praised our handling of the case and was keen to say our officers had acted in a professional and efficient way."
But yesterday Mr Blows, who has put the Dog Inn on the market for £120,000, was unrepentant and said he will appeal against the costs and try to challenge the ban in the court.
He said: "You can't have people walking all over you. If 25 per cent of the pubs in this country had fought the ban then they would not have been able to bring it in.
"As it is they didn't, and 50 pubs a week are closing, not to mention bingo halls and other places. I will appeal against the costs and then take it from there."
http://www.westpress.co.uk
A pub landlord says he's going to sell up and move abroad after being landed with a massive legal bill for breaking the smoking ban.
Tony Blows has put his country inn on the market and says he wants to move abroad because Britain has become a "Nazi state".
Mr Blows was fined more than £1,000, and ordered to pay council legal costs of £10,800, after being found guilty of lighting up and letting customers smoke in the Dog Inn at Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire.
"It's a travesty," said Mr Blows, who is one of the first landlords in the country to be taken to court for flouting the ban that came into force in July last year.
"If you get caught smoking drugs in the street, you get off with a slap on the wrist. But you get caught smoking in a pub you get £12,000. I'd probably have got less if I'd been caught with crack cocaine.
We are going to buy abroad
"We've put the pub on the market and we are going to buy abroad. There's no point staying in this country, it's becoming a Nazi state."
A guest who booked to stay at the inn while on a singing course at nearby Dore Abbey told the hearing at Hereford Magistrates Court that he was forced to cut short his stay because customers were lighting up in the bar.
Three council officials claimed that, during a covert visit to the pub in August, they saw Mr Blows and four customers smoking openly as they sat around a table criticising the ban.
Mr Blows pleaded not guilty and his lawyers accused the witnesses of being mistaken or making up evidence against him.
But after a three-day hearing District Judge Morgan said the evidence against Mr Blows was "overwhelming" and told the landlord that council taxpayers expected their local officials to enforce the ban.
He fined Mr Blows £75 for smoking in the pub, £500 on each count of two counts of allowing other people to smoke in the pub, and ordered him to pay legal costs of £10,800.
Mr Andy Tector, Herefordshire Council's head of environmental health and trading standards, said: "I am pleased the judge has praised our handling of the case and was keen to say our officers had acted in a professional and efficient way."
But yesterday Mr Blows, who has put the Dog Inn on the market for £120,000, was unrepentant and said he will appeal against the costs and try to challenge the ban in the court.
He said: "You can't have people walking all over you. If 25 per cent of the pubs in this country had fought the ban then they would not have been able to bring it in.
"As it is they didn't, and 50 pubs a week are closing, not to mention bingo halls and other places. I will appeal against the costs and then take it from there."
http://www.westpress.co.uk
Labels: SMOKED OUT BY 'NAZIS'
posted by coalville auto care at
11:18 AM
0 Comments
