A marketing agency has been fined £2,004 after positioning an advertising banner for a nearby Dacia dealership just yards from a War Memorial.

Bright blue banners advertising the Newcastle franchised site were put on display just days before the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, according to a report in the Metro.

Ambient Media Worldwide has now been ordered to pay more than £2,000 for the adverts, which were branded “particularly distasteful” by Newcastle City Council spokeswoman, Christine Herriot.

The Dacia adverts placed by the agency appeared in Newcastle’s Old Eldon Square, Northumberland Street, Grey Street and outside the Haymarket Metro station without permission.

Herriot said that the authority would not hesitate to prosecute companies who advertise illegally, adding: “That this should happen so close to the city’s War Memorial is particularly distasteful.”

The Dacia advertising posters had been discovered on November 5 and a council officer removed them, but more were put up the following day, Metro reported.

They were part of a marketing push which accompanied Dacia's November launch of the Dacia Buy Online car sales platform, which identified locations around the UK as part of "150 million new retail outlets across the UK", after customers were given the chance to order a car from their smartphone - whatever their location.

To mark the launch, Dacia also opened ‘pop-up dealerships’ at the White Cliffs of Dover and a scenic bus stop in Yorkshire.