Ian Stephens was fined Â£940 for driving without due care and attention in the middle lane of the M62 last August.
He told the BBC he has "done nothing wrong" and was merely driving on a steep section of the motorway in high winds.
He is considering appealing.
Mr Stephens, 42, of Shevington, near Wigan, said all three lanes of the motorway were busy and denied making other drivers behind him swerve and brake.
He claimed he has been targeted because he is a white van driver.
"There were a lot of lorries in the inside lane and it was uphill and very windy. I was going faster than the vehicles in the inside lane," he said.
"I do not feel as if I am guilty of lane hogging and that I've been made a scapegoat as I drive a white van."
Mr Stephens said he was travelling with ladders on top of his van at around 60mph and "honestly didn't believe" he had done anything wrong.
He did not attend the hearing at Leeds Magistrates' Court on Monday and rang ahead to say his business would suffer as he is self-employed.
He said he hoped the case would have been adjourned to a court closer to his home
"I couldn't afford a day off and I couldn't afford the money in diesel to get there," he said."
"I thought the offence was so minor and I didn't realise I would be given a fine of almost Â£1,000."
He insists he was travelling faster than the traffic in the inside lane.
"It was not as if I was dawdling on my own in the middle lane," he added.
Mr Stephens, who has had a driving licence for three or four years, was also given five points on his licence.
The government made it illegal two years ago to hog the middle lane of the motorway but it is understood to be the first reported offence.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was believed to be the first such conviction for lane hogging.
A man believed to be the first person convicted of hogging the middle lane of a motorway claims he has been made a scapegoat because he is a white van driver.