A PUB company has been fined £1,500 for using vehicles to illegally advertise a Dunhampton pub at the side of the road.

Wychavin District Council took action against Juke Inns Ltd after receiving a number of complaints about a car and a van parked on the side of the A449 between Kidderminster and Worcester, advertising The Old Leaking Well in Dunhampton.

The vehicles, which were parked in a layby near Crown Lane in Hartlebury, featured adverts for the pub, and officers had written to Juke Inns Ltd last September advising the company that they were parked there illegally and needed to be removed. Further letters were sent in December, and then this year in March, while several visits were made to the site, where officers witnessed the vehicles.

Jonathan Turton, operations manager for Juke Inns Ltd, pleaded guilty on behalf of the company at Worcester Magistrates’ Court on June 4, to breaching advertising regulations and section 224 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, by failing to get permission from planners.

In addition to the fine, the company was ordered to pay £855 in costs and a victim surcharge of £150.

Mark Lister, defending, said the pub relied on passing trade and was trading at a loss which potentially put the jobs of 10 members of staff at risk. But the company accepted they had been warned about the vehicles and should have removed them.

Although the court could not order the removal of the vehicles, Mr Turton was warned that if the case appeared before them again it would be viewed more seriously and the company could be fined for every day the vehicles were in place.

Graeme Duerden, development control manager for Wychavon District Council, said: “We are pleased with the sentence imposed by the court. These advertisements were placed near to a busy road with fast-moving traffic and posed an unnecessary and potentially dangerous distraction to motorists.

“To allow the company to carry on advertising illegally was also unfair on those companies who do abide by the rules.”