A Welsh man said he was ticketed for smoking in his privately owned van because officials consider it a workplace under the law.

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Gordon Williams, 58, a self-employed decorator from Llanafan, Wales, said he was pulled over by council officials near the city of Aberystwyth and issued a fixed penalty notice for smoking in a workplace -- despite his insistence that the van was not a place of business, The Telegraph reported Thursday.

"I was on my way to a shop to buy some tea bags when the council official pulled me over," Williams said. "But I was told that because my van is my place of work I had broken the smoking laws."

Williams said he plans to fight the fine in court.

"It's not my place of work -- I decorate houses not vans," he said. "I don't use it for work so I can't see how they can do me for smoking in the workplace."