A ST HELENS newsagent has been fined £100 and ordered to pay £228.50 in costs after pleading guilty to selling a firework to a 14-year-old boy.

Mr Mubarak Bax, who owns Bux's News in Higher Parr Street, Fingerpost, pleaded guilty to an offence, committed in October, 1997, against the Firework Safety Regulations of 1997 which states that it is an offence to sell fireworks to anyone under 18. The case was brought by St Helens Council's Trading Standards Office and chief officer Ken Wardale, said: "Our staff carried out advisory visits to all known St Helens-based retailers in 1997 to advise them of the new regulations and in a bid to reduce the number of serious accidents caused by fireworks each year."

Chairman of Housing and Environmental Services, Councillor Richard Ward, added: "The council campaigned for the new laws and our trading standards officers will continue to carry out advisory visits to make sure any illegal firework sales are stamped out."

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