Ice cream seller ordered to pay £6k+ after breaching injunction

A judge has ordered an ice cream seller to pay more than £6,000 in fines and costs for ignoring a court order to stop trading in a council car park.

On 31 August, Jason Tevfik, of Whitstable Ices which is based in Joy Lane, Whitstable, admitted nine specimen breaches of an injunction which banned him from parking his ice cream van in the Keam's Yard car park in Whitstable.

According to Canterbury City Council, the defendant had been seen letting the air out of the van’s tyres in order to get the vehicle past the height restriction.

Tevfik, of Plum Pudding Lane, Dargate, was fined £400 for each breach at Canterbury County Court and was ordered to pay the council's costs which amounted to around £2,778.

The injunction at Keam's Yard car park remains in place and the judge accepted an undertaking from Tevfik not to trade at Whitstable Harbour or inciting or encouraging others to do so.

Cllr Neil Baker, chairman of the city council’s Community Committee, said: “Selling ice cream is already a lucrative business so it is sheer greed that drives the rogue traders who ignore the rules and refuse to pay their dues.

“Our patience has run out and we will use every tactic available to us to crack down on the nuisance this causes to residents."

He added: “We welcome the tough stance taken by the court for the breach of one of its injunctions. It will hit Tevfik where it hurts – in his pocket.”