A NEWPORT newsagent must pay fines and costs totalling more than £500 for smoking in her own shop.

Wendy Foster, who runs Wendy's Newsagents on the city's Chepstow Road, fell foul of the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces and workplaces, which came into force in Wales last April.

She is the latest of just a few dozen people to have breached the smoking ban in its first year, but may be the first to be fined both for smoking in a smoke-free place and as the proprietor of the premises involved.

The offence took place at the shop on September 27 last year, in contravention of section 7(2) of the Health Act 2006.

Mrs Foster, 63, of Chepstow Road, Newport, was fined £30 for the smoking offence, and £200 as the manager of the shop, when she appeared at Abergavenny magistrates court.

She must also pay a £15 victim surcharge and £257.58 in costs, a total of £502.28.

Mrs Foster did not want to discuss the matter when approached by the Argus.

The prosecution was brought by Newport city council's trading standards department.

It is local authorities' responsibility to enforce the smoking ban.

Compliance figures issued by the Assembly show that during the first nine months of the ban, to December 31 2007, 67 fixed penalty notices for smoking in a smoke-free place had been issued across Wales.

The majority of these - 22 - were in Newport.

Of other Gwent area local authorities only Caerphilly, with one, had issued any.

Torfaen county borough council has subsequently issued one fixed penalty notice.

Nine out of 22 Welsh councils had issued fixed penalties by the end of 2007.

Enforcement teams in Wales carried out almost 30,000 inspections of premises to December 31.

Ninety-eight per cent were compliant.