THE director of a furniture company which supplied faulty cots that could have led to two infants suffering fatal injuries has avoided going to prison.

A judge said she felt able to suspend Phillip Dickens’ jail term because of his lack of intent to cause injury in supplying the potentially deadly Chinese-made cots.

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The 38-year-old, of Underley Street, Burnley, admitted placing an unsafe product on the market and had entered another guilty plea for a similar charge relating to the company he is the sole director of, Baumhaus Ltd.

Amersham Crown Court heard that two babies became stuck head first in a horizontal gap in the cot railings after crawling through them feet first – leaving them dangling by their necks.

Dickens had his three-month jail term suspended for 12 months by Judge Karen Holt.

Baumhaus Ltd, based near Bicester, was fined £12,000, while the company and Dickens must pay £35,653 in costs between them and must also both pay £500 compensation to the mothers of the children, Louise Conant and Deborah Turner.

The court heard Miss Conant only noticed her 19-month-old daughter Ophelia was in trouble because she had a video monitor installed in her bedroom.

Judge Holt said: “Seeing her daughter on the video monitor screen hanging by her neck was, using her words, beyond description and completely traumatic.

“In her view, the fact she had a video monitor saved her daughter’s life.

“This is a serious offence because it came through your negligence. It could have caused the loss of life of babies.”

But Judge Holt said that although Dickens and the company had been ‘naïve and negligent’, there was ‘very strong mitigation’ on their behalf.

The court heard the firm immediately tried to recall all 212 cots it had sent out when it was sent a copy of the video taken by Miss Conant by Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards, which brought the prosecution.

The court was told no health and safety tests on the cots were carried out in the UK.