First pub landlord charged with refusing to enforce smoking ban hit with £10,000 fine

Nick Hogan, 40, was hauled before the courts after repeatedly allowing his customers to light up.

One of his regulars, Gerard Hart, 47, was the first person to be prosecuted under the new legislation when he was caught smoking in one of Hogan's pubs in October last year.

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Hogan denied breaking the law by claiming he had "advised" his regulars about the ban and had left it up to them to decide whether to smoke or not.

But a district judge dismissed his explanation and found him guilty of "flagrant breaches" of the legislation, which was introduced in July last year.

He fined Hogan £3,000 and ordered him to pay £7,236 in costs after finding him guilty of four charges of failing to prevent people from smoking in his pubs under the Health Act 2006.

Judge Tim Devas, sitting at Bolton magistrates court, said: "It was flagrant breach of the law.

"It seems to me that the Act leaves no doubt that it is not sufficient for someone to merely give people a choice, and to tell them that what they do is their choice.

"The landlord took steps to inform his customers as to the law, but made it clear as to his stance.

"He did not take reasonable steps to cause persons smoking to stop."

Hogan, who ran two pubs in Bolton, Greater Manchester, is the first landlord to be convicted of breaking the ban after challenging the new smoking laws.

In November (2007) a landlord in Blackpool, Lancashire, was fined after he pleaded guilty to failing to stop his customers from smoking in his pub.

Another publican, from Stroud in Gloucestershire has also since been acquitted of similar charges.

The court heard that Hogan held a "mass light-up" in his two pubs, the Swan Hotel and Barristers' Bar, in Bolton, on the day the smoking ban came into force last year.

He was visited by inspectors from the local authority, who found letters taped to pub tables advising customers that they had the "freedom to choose whether or not to smoke."

They also saw regulars smoking on five separate occasions.

When they warned Hogan he could be fined £2,500 if he continued to allow his regulars to smoke indoors, he asked them to leave.

He was given a written warning but refused to accept a second, insisting he be taken to court.

Hogan was also invited to be interviewed under caution but refused and instead urged Bolton Council to launch a prosecution so that his views could be aired in public.

Hogan, who has since sold his lease for both the pubs, was cleared of one count of failing to prevent his customers from smoking and four further charges of obstructing council officers.

Last night he said he was considering an appeal and vowed to continue fighting the legislation which he branded "draconian".

"This was not just about smoking, it was about people's rights," Hogan, a smoker himself, said.

"This legislation is unworkable and discriminatory.

"I'm not pro-smoking, but I am pro-choice. I have respect for the law, but I have no respect for an unfair law.

"I don't want to break the law, but I feel I've been pushed into it. It's my pub, not the Government's.

"Cigarettes are a legal product. If the council wants to ban smoking in its buildings or it is banned in the hospital, then that's fine because they are publicly-owned buildings, but my pub is not.

"Other minority groups have rights, so why are smokers being refused theirs?"