LANDLORD Mark Hughes faces an uncertain future after police and council officers found him defying the smoking ban.

They raided the Blacksmiths Arms, Sheerness, last weekend and caught him smoking what could be his most expensive cigarette ever.

The 46-year-old could now face a fine of up to £2,500 under the anti-smoking legislation introduced last year.

Two police officers and two Swale council officers visited 28 pubs on the Isle of Sheppey on Friday.

The Blacksmiths Arms, in Clyde Street, was the only place thought to be breaking the law.

Mr Hughes, who has been licensee for nine years, has been opposed to the smoking laws since their introduction and has called for them to be changed to allow pubs the choice of permitting smoking or not. He hit the headlines last May when he put a sign in his window declaring the Blacksmiths was a smoking pub.

He said: "I was smoking a cigarette in the back bar when the officers arrived. I was the only one doing so at the time, and given another 30 seconds I would have put it out.

"To say the least, I was rather abrupt with the officers and I have since phoned the council to apologise. They say they can’t let the matter rest so I am waiting to find out what will happen to me. I could be fined up to £2,500 or have problems with renewing my licence.

"I feel totally demoralised about the whole situation, and if trade doesn’t improve I can see myself shutting down inside a year and converting the pub back into houses or a shop. After 150 years that would be sad, but the promised upsurge in non-smokers going out to pubs hasn’t happened for me.

"About 90 per cent of my customers are smokers and many are of the older generation who have been smoking for much of their lives. Some are war veterans. I can’t let old people stand out in the wind and rain to have a cigarette so I allow them to smoke by the door to the garden area.

"This is a trouble-free pub among the chimney pots. I don’t allow underage drinking or drugs but it’s difficult enough keeping an eye out for those things, let alone stopping smokers."