A plumber who charged a nursery worker nearly £700 for a 15 minute job has been slapped with a fine by Wandsworth trading standards.

Rinio Reece, director of plumbing firm Speedline Ltd, was prosecuted for using misleading and inaccurate advertising about his company's charges.

He conned the Balham nursery nurse after she called the company over a leaky hot water boiler at her Bedford Hill property.

The company's advert in the Wandsworth and Battersea issue of the Thomson Local directory claimed it operated a no call out' charge to customers.

But it later emerged that the woman had actually been charged from the time she made the original phone call.

The customer called Speedline at around 11.10pm and just under an hour later Mr Reece arrived and diagnosed the problem as a faulty washer in the boiler's air valve system.

She decided she did not want Mr Reece to carry out any repairs as the boiler had only recently been installed and was still under warranty.

As a temporary measure, Mr Reece put some tape around the leaking pipe and then presented the woman with a bill for £693.25.

He charged her £295 plus VAT for every half hour of work when, according to her testimony, she was originally quoted £250 plus VAT.

As a result of her complaint to Wandsworth trading standards, Mr Reece and the company were summonsed to appear at South Western Magistrates Court.

Both were convicted of one offence under the Consumer Protection Act 1987.

Mr Reece, who gave his address as Rhyl in Clwyd, was fined £500 and ordered to pay the council's costs of £1,336.

Magistrates awarded the victim compensation of £350. No separate fines were imposed on the company, based in Hampton in Middlesex, which Mr Reece claimed had now ceased trading.