Forbuoys Ltd have been find a total of £36,700 at Exeter Crown Court following a prosecution by Devon County Council Trading Standards Department, for a range of offences relating to the way they stored fireworks at their Axminster and Tiverton stores. The company had not responded to formal cautions for previous breaches of firework storage requirements in 2003, and the latest offences were so serious that sentencing was referred by Axminster Magistrates to the High Court, where the company pleaded guilty to 6 offences in total.
Prosecution was the result of a Trading Standards visit to the Axminster store in January 2005, who were horrified to discover around 2 tonnes of fireworks on the premises, which was 8 times the legal limit. In addition, fireworks were not being stored safely, some were near a fluorescent light, boxes of fireworks were surrounding a fire exit and some were stacked at the bottom of a staircase. The fact that an emergency did not arise was purely through luck rather than judgement.
