A LANDLORD who ran pubs in East Lancashire has been jailed after refusing to pay fines imposed when he defied the smoking ban.

Nick Hogan, former landlord of the Holden Arms in Haslingden and the Waterside pub in Summerseat, near Ramsbottom, was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £7,136 in costs when he was found guilty of breaching the ban in January, 2008.

At the time of the breach he was in charge of The Swan and Barristers in Bradshawgate, Bolton.

He appealed the conviction but lost, and an extra £1,000 was added to the costs.

But Hogan, 43, of Hollinshead Street, Chorley, has failed to pay the money and on Friday he appeared at Bolton Magistrates’ Court where he was sent to prison for six months.

His wife, Denise Hogan, who is the landlady at The Swan With Two Necks in Chorley, said after the hearing: “He has not hurt anyone or robbed a bank.

"I feel lost for words that he has been sent to prison for letting someone smoke a cigarette.

“I think that the courts are making an example of him and I am devastated.

“I believed in everything that he said, but he just went the wrong way about it.”

When the smoking ban was introduced in July, 2007, Hogan said he wanted to give people the freedom to choose.

When Bolton Council brought the prosecution he pleaded not guilty to five counts of failing to prevent people from smoking in his pubs and four of obstructing council officers.

District Judge Timothy Devas found him guilty of four charges of allowing people to smoke.

He was cleared of one count because he was not on the premises at the time, and he was found not guilty of four obstruction charges.

If a fine is not paid, court enforcement officers follow it up, and if it remains outstanding the case will be brought back to court for magistrates to give an alternative sentence.