Sunday 29 November 2015

Be Safe, Be Seen, Be Fined

Poundworld has been fined over £63,000 for selling non reflective hi-vis jackets, sporting the logo "be safe, be seen". Tests conducted by trading standards on one of the jackets revealed its reflectivitiy was no more than 2.4 per cent of what it should have been. The discount retailer had already sold more than 95,000 vests for £1 each. Prosecutor Andrew Johnson said Joe Taylor, from Hertfordshire Trading Standards, had carried out tests on a hi-vis jacket purchased from PoundWorld. Judge John Plumstead fined Poundworld £15,000 and ordered it to pay £42,395 in an agreed confiscation order, along with £6,123 in prosecution costs. He said: "People would have gone out of the shop believing they had improved the safety of their children or themselves when out after dark on foot or on a bicycle. "The fine demonstrates the court’s disapproval of those who put on the market safety aids that are not safety aids at all."