A TOWN mayor was considering his position last night after being convicted for his part in the sale of contraband cigarettes.

Councillor Ray Calvert, 59, who took the post of Bedale's leading citizen in May, was fined £300 by magistrates sitting in Richmond, North Yorkshire on Monday.

He admitted a charge of allowing cigarettes without the proper markings to be sold at the Bedale Riverside Club, where he holds the voluntary post of secretary.

Club stewardess, Linda Lloyd, 48, of Emgate, Bedale, was also fined the same amount after pleading guilty to a similar offence.

The charges related to a total of 750 grams of Golden Virginia Hand-Rolling Tobacco and 6,960 Palace cigarettes recovered from the club after a visit from Customs officers earlier this year.

The court was told the revenue on the bootleg products would have been worth about £1,000.

Mr Calvert denied he had been actively involved in smuggling contraband tobacco into the country and then selling it illegally.

"I regret this incident and would like to make it clear this was not for personal gain whatsoever," he said.

"I am involved with the club as part of the committee and not in a personal capacity but, although this happened on the club's premises, I had no idea."

He said: "This has nothing to do with my being Mayor of Bedale and happened long before I was elected to the post. I am now considering my position as a councillor and as mayor."

No one else from the town council was prepared to comment on the issue ahead of the administration's next meeting on Monday evening.

The doors to the Riverside Club remained closed yesterday.

Mr Calvert, who lives on the town's Southgate, has been a member of Bedale Town Council for seven years.

He was elected as mayor in May in succession to Councillor John Weighell, after Councillor John Noone - in line for the post after serving as deputy for the preceding 12 months - quit the council in a row over the new code of conduct enforced by the 2000 Local Government Act