An art gallery boss fined £80 for spitting claims he had actually coughed up a piece of crispy bacon.

Dean Stalham is refusing to pay the penalty and says he will protest his innocence in court.

The 55-year-old was handed the ticket by an enforcement officer working for Thanet District Council, who alleges he spat on the ground near the Dalby Cafe in Margate.

Mr Stalham’s solicitors - in their representation to Thanet District Council - describe the act as an “involuntary expulsion of a very small piece of crispy pork".

"I said 'you're having a laugh'," Mr Stalham recalls. "I never spat, I coughed. I said I think you need to go to Specsavers because this is ludicrous."

Mr Stalham claims it was coughed up into his coat sleeve.

He has yet to pay the fixed penalty notice and is now being pursued through the courts by the district council.

"I left the cafe, coughed and the bit of bacon came out of my mouth. In no way was it spitting," he said.

"I've got an unusually large tongue, that's a medical fact, and it's joined at the top. I often get food trapped - that's a fact of my life.

"I was brought up to cough into your hand and I've always done that.

"Never in a million years am I giving them a penny for something I didn't do.

"I'll die innocent of this. If you interview me on my deathbed I'll still maintain it. It's one of those cases - it seems so ludicrous and ridiculous but there is a serious side.

"I haven't eaten bacon since and I won't again, look where it gets you - it gets you on trial."

Mr Stalham - who runs the The Stretch Outsider Arts Gallery in The Centre - is now preparing his defence ahead of his day in court.

"I'm sorry it's public money. I'm a volunteer worker on universal credit and things are tight as hell and I've even been to the food bank last month, so £80 would cripple me.

"Your innocence is major to who you are and it's your human right to plead you're innocent," he said.

"This piece of bacon is like a boulder on my shoulder."

Mr Stalham will appear before magistrates in Folkestone for trial on March 25.