A kebab shop has been fined a staggering £50,000 for displaying an illuminated sign without permission.

The Duru’s Kebab House in Watling Street, Chatham, was prosecuted by Medway Council after the sign was put up outside the takeaway without the relevant planning consent.

It was displayed across the front of the shop between August 2016 and February this year, against the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

The case was proved last month, but no one from the takeaway turned up at Medway Magistrates’ Court for the hearing.

Magistrates not only fined the kebab house for the planning contravention, but also ordered it pay £400 costs.

The bench gave the owner until tomorrow, May 31, to pay the fine.

This means staff will have to sell a total of 9,333 small lamb doner kebabs, which cost £5.40 each, to generate enough money to pay the massive fine and the court costs.