Potentially lethal hair clippers seized from Blackburn shop

4:17pm Friday 16th May 2008

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POTENTIALLY lethal hair clippers have been seized by trading standards in a raid on a pound store.

The items, on sale at Pound Craze in Blackburn, were lacking vital electrical safety measures, including fuses and plastic sheathing, Trading Standards said.

Users were at risk of being electrocuted - which could have proved fatal to anyone with a weak heart, officers said.

The clippers were being sold for just £3 at the Church Street store.

Trading Standards officers said they were alerted to the dangerous goods when one customer brought in a pair that had become very hot when being used and had emitted a burning smell.

Officers confiscated 27 pairs of the 'family use' Richo easy cut clippers, which they said had already been taken off the shelves by staff at the store after customers had complained directly to them.

It is not known where the hair clippers had originally been produced.

Coun John Slater, executive member for citizens and consumer rights, said: "Officers were horrified to find that, although the plug says 13amp, there was no fuse fitted and no space for a fuse. The wiring was different colours in different pairs of clippers and the metal top cover was in contact with the wiring."

Customers are now being warned not to use the clippers Coun Slater said: "Independent safety tests confirmed the clippers are potentially lethal and should not be on sale. Anyone who has bought them should immediately stop using them and return them to the shop."

He added: "The shop had already taken them off sale and we are working with them to trace the source of this dangerous product. We have also alerted trading standards officers nationwide to check their local shops. If you do see cheap electrical goods for sale be very careful and check that they conform to British safety standards."

No one was available for comment at the shop.