A cigarette smoker who enjoyed illicit fags in a no-smoking bedroom at a hotel has been ordered to pay compensation to the establishment's owners.

A judge ruled that Bruce Innes, of Church Marks Lane in East Hoathly, near Uckfield, puffed on sneaky roll-ups at the window of his hotel room despite being banned from lighting up.

When the hotel owners found the room stank of smoke they collected his discarded cigarette butts from under his window and kept them as evidence.

They took Innes to court for the cost of cleaning the room and the money lost to the hotel while the room was out of service.

Mr Innes, 56, a technician, admitted hurling two cigarette butts out of the window of his room at the Melverley Heights Guest House in Ipswich.

But the 15-a-day smoker denied puffing away in room seven of the Victorian guesthouse during his four-day stay.

Judge Nicholas Greenfield ruled that Mr Innes did smoke in the room after being shown an envelope containing five butts and photographs of ash dropped on the floor.

The evidence was presented by owners Graham and Kim Camplin who travelled 120 miles to put their case at Lewes County Court.

Mr Innes accused the couple of "manufacturing" the pictures and claimed the other three roll-up butts were "fatter" than his.

The court heard how Mr Innes first booked into the hotel while working away from home.

He paid a single occupancy rate of £45 for the double room which normally costs £65.

But when he returned the next week and left on May 11 the Camplins told the court they were forced to strip and clean the room to get rid of the smell of smoke.

They also said they missed out on hiring the room for one night, leaving them a total of £150 out of pocket.

Mrs Camplin said: "We have always been non-smoking and it's the law now not to smoke but I believe certain hotels can have smoking rooms. We never have in our house.

"We've got two girls who help us clean and when they went upstairs to clean the rooms they said it smelled strongly of smoke and there was ash on the floor.

"There was also ash underneath the window and when I looked outside cigarette ends had been thrown onto the roof of the laundry room."

The court heard that there were 'No Smoking' signs in the hotel's reception and on the back of each room's front door.

But Mr Innes said: "I just did not smoke in the room otherwise I would not have gone back to stay there the second week. I would have gone somewhere else.

"I threw some a couple of butts out of the window where I'd stubbed them out to re-use them but left them in my pocket.

"I thought rather than throw them in the bin, which is going to smell, I would throw them out of the window so that I don't get in to all this hassle."

Judge Greenfield found in the owners' favour and ordered Mr Innes to cough up £105 in compensation and costs totalling £165.

He said: "I think Mr Innes did smoke in the room on the balance of probabilities.

"I think he thought that if he could smoke by the window in the room it would be all right but he was under a contractual duty not to smoke inside the property."

Afterwards, a fuming Mr Innes said: "I didn't smoke in that room. I haven't got this sort of money. There's no justice."

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