Smoker ordered to pay hotel compensation

IPSWICH, England, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A British judge ruled that a man breached his contractual duties when he smoked cigarettes in his non-smoking hotel room.

Bruce Innes was ordered by Lewes County Court in East Sussex to pay compensation to Graham and Kim Camplin, owners of the Melverley Heights Guest House in Ipswich, after the court rejected Innes' claims that the evidence against him had been manufactured by his accusers, The Times of London reported Monday.

The Camplins said the Innes's smoking had stunk up the room so badly that it had to be stripped and thoroughly cleaned. The defendant accused the pair of manufacturing evidence, including an envelope containing five cigarette butts they said they took from the room and photographs of cigarette ash from the floor of the room, the newspaper report said.

"I just did not smoke in the room, otherwise I would not have gone back to stay there the second week," Innes said.

However, the court sided with the Camplins.

"We have always been non-smoking and it's the law now not to smoke, but I believe certain hotels can have smoking rooms. We never have in our house," Kim Camplin told The Times.