Maidenhead & Windsor

A Maidenhead shopkeeper has been fined a total of £1,000 after pleading guilty to two charges of selling unsafe electrical goods from his High Street store.

Suresh Kumar appeared at Maidenhead magistrates court on Friday on two charges under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 of selling illuminated framed pictures from the Lifestyle Homestore, 73 High Street, Maidenhead.

He was fined £500 on each of the two charges and ordered to pay £1,080 cost to the council.

The court heard how a Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough trading standards officer carried out a test purchase of an illuminated framed picture from the premises in August last year.

Subsequent tests revealed that the frame was not marked with the required safety information (including a CE mark) and also had an “inappropriate and incorrectly anchored “supply cord with inadequate levels of insulation – posing a risk of fire and electric shock.

The remaining 21 pictures in the shop were seized by officers and a further two exhibited the same problems of failing to comply with safety regulations which led to the subsequent charges.

Steve Johnson, Windsor and Maidenhead trading standards manager, said: “It is the responsibility of all shop owners to make sure that the goods they sell comply with strict safety regulations.

“This case helps to deliver the message that we in trading standards will continue to prosecute proprieters who compromise the safety of their customers by selling unsafe goods and attempt to use ignorance of the regulations as a defence.”

The court ordered the forfeiture of all the items to trading standards.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead