Self-employed workman, 70, is fined £150 for not displaying a 'No Smoking' sign in his own van – TWO times the penalty if he had been caught smoking
A bemused van driver was slapped with a £150 fine for failing to display a 'No Smoking' sticker in his vehicle.
Trevor Emery and his son Lee, who both do not smoke, were fined two times more than if they had actually been caught smoking in their work van.
The washing machine repairer was left bewildered by the law, which makes it compulsory to display a 'No Smoking' sticker in a van used for business.
Trevor, 70, was travelling to a job in Canterbury, Kent, when he was slapped with the penalty by a city council warden.
He said: 'We were completely oblivious to the law.
'I'm sure that if you walk the streets of Canterbury looking in the windows of work vans you won't see many of the stickers.
'Apparently it came into force in 2006 but we had not been made aware of it.
'Trevor and Lee, who run their own domestic appliance business, Wash Freeze, are the only users of the van.
Trevor added: 'If we were actually caught smoking in the van, the fine would be just £50 - that is just ridiculous.
'Surely the best thing to do was to give us a fair warning and tell us to get a sticker - but that didn't happen.
'We were parked on double yellow lines, which we are allowed to do for unloading, so I thought the officer would bring us up on that.Of course, if we had known then the sticker would have been in the van straight away.'
'But then he said about this weird law.
'I was expecting a £30 fine or something like that, but a larger one seemed ominous when I asked the officer and he was reluctant to say - the figure he said was just ridiculous.'
The law states that businesses must display 'No Smoking' signs in all workplaces and vehicles.
Fines can reach in excess of £1,000.
Trevor said: 'As I paid the fine within two weeks, it was reduced to £150, but that is still unfair.
'I appealed but we were unsuccessful, so we have now warned others about this law.
'Hopefully others won't be caught out - and we definitely won't as a No Smoking sticker was put in the van straight away.'
Doug Rattray from Canterbury City Council said: 'It is an offence to not display a No Smoking sign in a vehicle that is used for commercial purposes.
'This is the case regardless of whether someone is self-employed, the only person to use the vehicle or if nobody smokes in it.
'We enforce this but the level of fine is set nationally in law.
'Mr Emery received a fine, which he paid, for this offence. He was advised on the legislation and given the correct sign.'
A council spokesman confirmed around 50 fines have been issued since the law came into force.
