Prosecution by council sees fireworks seller fined £300,000

A discount store has been fined £300,000 for unsafe storage of fireworks, following a prosecution by a county council.

JTF Wholesale was prosecuted by Staffordshire County Council for its failure to store fireworks on sale in safe containers, breaching Explosives Regulations and the Health and Safety at Work Act. Trading standards officers had visited the company’s Tamworth store on 4 November 2014.

The company was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court and also ordered to pay £29,823 costs to the county council.

The court heard how the company had been previously sentenced for similar offences in Leeds in 2013. Staffordshire said this was something JTF Wholesale did not disclose when applying for a licence for the Tamworth store.

The council said deliveries of fireworks were not recorded correctly and the store had deliberately overstocked during the firework season.

Gill Heath, Cabinet Member for Communities and the Environment at Staffordshire, said: “We know the devastating effects of not storing fireworks correctly and by breaching health and safety regulations, this store was putting members of the public and its employees at risk. It is vital that businesses selling fireworks act responsibly and adhere to all of the conditions of the licence. The seriousness of these offences has been reflected in the sentence.”