THE owner of a Worcestershire blinds business has been ordered to pay more than £700 for illegally displaying an advertisement on a trailer hoarding – despite having been ordered to remove other adverts on four previous occasions.

Mark Nicholas White, director of 1st Choice Blinds, pleaded guilty to a charge of displaying the advert without the required advertising consent when he appeared before Worcester Magistrates today (Thursday, April 7).

1st Choice Blinds was reported to Worcester City Council, which brought the prosecution, after his advert was spotted on a mobile trailer hoarding in Ketch Field, Broomhall Way, Worcester, last month, on March 6.

The council visited the site and issued the company with a removal notice two days later.

The trailer was removed, but the council discovered it only a few days later, on March 23, at Hams Way, just outside the city boundary.

Because this was the fifth time the council had had to order 1st Choice Blinds to remove illegal advertising, the decision was made to go ahead with the successful prosecution.

The trailer had previously been spotted in Broomhall Way in January, Tolladine Road, in December, and there were two sightings of the trailer in February this year, in Newtown Road and Astwood Road, says the council.

White, however, says there are many other companies doing the same thing in the same locations, but he is being "victimised" by the council.

He also says that, regarding one of the February incidents, he was ordered to move the trailer within 48 hours and did so, yet was still fined.

Georgina Coley, legal executive for Worcester City Council, said: "The defendant demonstrates a blatant disregard for the requirement for advertising consent by continually moving the advertisements in what is perceived to be an attempt to circumvent prosecution.

"There have been five similar breaches and the defendant has had numerous opportunities to comply with the regulations."

Magistrates fined 1st Choice Blinds £650 and ordered the company to pay £50 in costs and a victim surcharge of £65.

White, 38, of Tanhouse Lane, Malvern, said: "I am being victimised by the council.

"In February we moved the trailer within 48 hours of the notice, which was the instruction, and yet we still get fined. Not fair.

"There are loads of trailers parked in the same places we are, and yet nothing happens to them. We're just a small business employing local people.

"We are being hounded and victimised by one person at the council.

"From now on we will leave the trailer at Pitchcroft, where we have been told by the council we're allowed to be."

A spokesman for the council says, however, that it was specifically the advert that was breaching the rules and not the trailer.

Also, that trailers which don't have permission to display advertisements will be fined, and at least one other has been.

It was also stated that White does not have permission to advertise on Pitchcroft.