An ice cream seller has vowed to take his fight against a council prosecution for unauthorised trading to the European Court of Justice.

Laurence Vella, 54, broke down in tears as he told Kingston Crown Court his conviction for selling without a licence in Petersham Road had left him devastated.

He was fined £3,415 at Richmond Magistrates’ Court in December, after pleading guilty to 12 offences.

Vella, of Munster Road, Teddington, claimed Richmond Council representatives had pressured him outside court into admitting the charges – an accusation the council denied, and the judge rejected.

He told the court on Wednesday: “I should have fought it all the way. I was given the wrong advice.

“They told me I had nowhere to go because I had no licence, so I had to be found guilty. I knew in my heart of hearts I should have pleaded not guilty.”

He claimed at an appeal hearing this week he had a right to sell ice cream in the car park of the Three Pigeons pub because his family had traded there for 27 years – before the council took it over four years ago.

He added: “I’m dyslexic and I’m 54-years-old, I just want justice here.

“This has broken me, it’s like David and Goliath.

“This pitch means everything to me to make my living.”

Vella said he had been living in his sister’s shed so he could rent out his home to help pay off his debts.

Saba Naqshbandi, representing Richmond Council, denied Vella had worked at the site for so long, and denied the authority pressured him to plead guilty at the hearing on December 15 last year.

She told the court “it would not be appropriate” for the council to give him legal advice.

The authority denied Vella a licence in February last year, because it was concerned his van would block the area.

Recorder Heather Norton said she could not overturn Vella’s guilty pleas, adding she did not accept he was “placed under duress”.

She also upheld his sentence and ordered him to pay an additional £500 council costs, on top of the fine from the December hearing.