Government-imposed fines are another form of taxation and another opportunity for resistance. Here’s an example from :
Pub landlord is first person in Britain to be jailed over smoking ban
A former pub landlord became the
first person to be jailed in connection with the smoking ban.
Nick Hogan, 43, was sentenced to six months in prison for refusing to pay a
fine imposed for flouting the legislation.
Hogan, who ran two pubs in Bolton,
became the first landlord convicted of breaking the law for allowing his
customers to routinely light up in his bars.
A judge fined Hogan, of Chorley, Lancashire, £3,000 and ordered him to pay
£7,236 in costs after finding him guilty of four charges under the Health Act
2006.
But the married father-of-two refused to pay the fine and
, after repeatedly being hauled
back before the courts, a judge sitting at Bolton Crown Court finally lost
patience and jailed him.
his wife, Denise, 53, who is
also a publican, said she was disgusted that her husband would be in prison
alongside murderers and rapists.
“Criminals and bad people go to prison not law-abiding businessmen like my
husband who are trying to earn an honest living,” she said. “Nick doesn’t
deserve to go to jail, all he has done is speak his mind and people simply
don’t like it.
“Ninety per cent of people who come into my pub want to smoke, even the
non-smokers think there should be a choice. These laws are ridiculous.”
At the hearing, in , magistrates
were told 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 in
.
He was visited by inspectors from the local authority, who found letters
taped to pub tables advising customers they had the “freedom to choose
whether or not to smoke”.
They also saw regulars smoking on five separate occasions.
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.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the anti-smoking group
ASH, insisted it was a myth that the
anti-smoking legislation had forced pubs out of business.
She said: “Many pubs have shifted their focus to serving food, so they have
changed their nature.”
She added: “Mr Hogan is the exception, not the norm, because compliance rates
for the ban are way above 90 per cent.”
Hogan was set free when a blogger going by the handle of “Old Holborn” dressed up in a Guy Fawkes mask and cape in order to remain anonymous and delivered a suitcase full of cash to prison to pay Hogan’s fine. The funds had been donated by thousands of people around the world who were sympathetic to Hogan’s fight.
