'Risk of death' from illegally stored fireworks as Cheltenham firm hit with £25k fine
Summary
A Cheltenham fireworks company and its director have been fined over £25,000 as a court heard the firm’s illegal storage of more than 1,200kg of explosives could have caused ‘risk of death’. Platinum Home Cinema Ltd., and its director Chase Gardiner, pleaded guilty to four offences each, three of which related to the storage of more than 1,220kg of explosives at a Livery Yard facility without a licence.
Details
The other charge, which both Gardiner and his company pleaded guilty to at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court on April 22, related to being over the storage capacity at another, licenced premises by 291kg, an excess of approximately 36 per cent of what should have been stored there.
Gardiner, 42, of Hales Road in Cheltenham, appeared by himself at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, May 26, where he was fined £3,986 as an individual – a total of £710 for each of the four offences, plus a surcharge of £1,146. On top of this, his company, Platinum Home Cinema Ltd., was charged a total of £11,200, including surcharge.
And additional court costs came to £10,634.30, bringing the total owed by Gardiner and Platinum Home Cinema Ltd. to £25,820.30.
The court heard that on July 9, 2024, the local authority received a phone call from an unidentified informant, a former employee of Gardiner’s firm, who reported that there were fireworks being stored without a licence in three storage containers at a Livery Yard on Church Farm Lane, on the edge of Shurdington.
Consequently, on July 18, 2024, investigating officers from Trading Standards made a visit to the location and went into each of the containers, recording their findings on a mobile phone camera. Prosecuting, Alan Fuller told the court: “Each of the containers was found to be rusty and in poor condition. Fireworks were stored in sealed boxes, open boxes, half-empty boxes, some were loose on the floor and on shelves.
“Officers saw inside the first container using a mobile phone camera and found that it did indeed contain boxes of fireworks. “The defendant then attended and denied fireworks were present at the farm at all, although this quickly changed when officers told him they had already identified fireworks. “Further fireworks were found in a second container, and the defendant again denied any additional stores.
This, too, was found to be incorrect when officers found the third container.” The court then heard that Gardiner claimed the fireworks had only been moved to the site three days prior, on July 15, as he had reportedly received threats that someone was going to set fire to his company’s licenced store.