Call for prison for hotel smokers

A hotelier in Llandudno, Wales, has called for more severe punishments – including prison terms – for people who smoke illegally in their rooms, according to a story by Steve Craddock for News North Wales.

John Humberstone, manager of the Grand Ash Hotel, said that it was time to change the law.

“I think there should be a prison term involved; it is reckless endangerment,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a hotelier or guest house owner in this town that can’t be concerned that someone could quite easily damage their business or worse still kill one of their guests.

“Now and again you get drunken idiots who come in and think it funny to set a fire extinguisher off. It’s not funny if we need that an hour later – it’s something that needs to be addressed.

“This is a town full of 150-year-old buildings; the timber in these buildings are bone dry. It doesn’t take a lot of heat and fire to set one of these hotels on fire.”

But Aberconwy MP Guto Bebb was quoted as saying that the Department of Justice felt the regulations were working well and provided a reasonable degree of clarity with respect to the penalty that could be imposed on the smoker and the potential penalty faced by the business owner.