A COUNCILLOR who owns a driving school has been given an £80 fine for swearing after getting into a row with a client who failed his test.

Nick Harvey, who owns a heavy goods vehicle training centre on Canvey, was reported to police for using profanities during an argument with a disgruntled learner who failed part of his test.

He was waiting at Rayleigh police station for three hours before being given a fixed penalty notice for causing a public disturbance.

Mr Harvey, a Canvey Independent Party councillor, said: "I was absolutely gobsmacked. The man got annoyed because, though he passed one test, he failed another using an articulated lorry.

"He ranted at the examiner and then he was shouting at me and I told him to eff off and come back when he had calmed down. The next thing I know the police have told me to come down to the station."

Mr Harvey said he felt the police could have been concentrating on more pressing crimes on the island.

He said: "I am shocked police should waste their time like this.

"Kids are throwing stones at windows in the Paddocks, old ladies can't walk about safely because of nuisance motorcyclists and there is vandalism and graffiti everywhere. Yet I get fined for swearing in my own yard on an industrial estate."

Nishan Wijeratne, a spokesman for Essex Police, said: "A man from Canvey has received a fixed penalty notice following a disturbance.

"Police were contacted shortly after 10am on Sunday, July 8, by a 37-year-old man from Stanford-le-Hope following a disagreement at an address in Charfleets Road.

A 55-year-old man from the island was arrested and accepted a fixed penalty notice for causing a public disturbance."