A private detective who posed as a wedding guest in Spain has been fined £53,700 after gatecrashing the happy couples reception to collect evidence against the owners of the venue.

He was employed by the Spanish General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), which protects the rights of musicians and artists to their work, who suspected that the owners of La Doma restaurant were not paying royalties for music they were using.

SGAE has now been given the fine by the Spanish Data Protection Agency as its actions breached "the intimacy of the couple" at the event in 2005.

Pedro Farre, the director of the SGAE, said: "Using private detectives to investigate fraud is common. We will carry on doing it."

Last week, it was reported that one lorry driver who found a digital camera went on a quest to return it to its owners after discovering it was full of images from their big day.