With Halloween approaching, Coventry Trading Standards is reminding parents to protect their children from flammable fancy dress costumes. 

Halloween and other fancy dress costumes are classed as toys which are not subject to the same strict fire regulation testing as everyday clothing. All children's fancy dress costumes must be labelled with a 'CE' mark, which means they meet toy safety regulations. Parents are strongly advised to only buy costumes that display this mark and report any that don't. And always buy from a trusted store or online source. But remember, even those that comply with toy safety regulations can still catch fire but should burn at a rate that will allow a child to get out before a serious injury occurs.

If a child’s clothing does catch fire, remember:

• STOP – stop what you’re doing and stay very still.
• DROP – drop to the floor.
• ROLL – roll backwards and forwards until the flames are out.

Trading Standards is warning residents to be on their guard after a report from the Tile Hill Lane area of doorstep roofers.

One local resident who declined the offer of having roofing work done made comment that their windows were their priority. The roofer then stated that they did windows as well!

Trading Standards advises never to deal with anyone who turns up at your door offering to do work or trying to sell items.This this is a favoured approach used by Rogue Traders whose sole intention is to extract as much money from victims as possible whilst either doing poor quality work, unnecessary work or no work at all.

 If you do need work on your property or garden, use a reputable local trader recommended by friends or family.

On 15 October 2018, Daniel Namiq Rasool aged 33, who ran the Aqua Supermarket, 256 Harnall Lane East, Coventry, CV1 5AY from January 2015 up to December 2017 pleaded guilty to all 9 offences relating to the supply of illegal tobacco products whilst in charge of his shop.

Mr Rasool was given a 12 month Community Order by Coventry Magistrates and ordered to pay £1000 costs and a victim surcharge of £85.

On 29/11/2017 Officers from Trading Standards visited his shop, Aqua Supermarket, 256 Harnall Lane East and on entering Mr Rasool was seen standing on a stool handing a customer a packet of illegal cigarettes.

During a search of the shop further illegal cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco were found, some of which were counterfeit. These were hidden in empty Shisha Pipe Boxes which were on top of a fridge which was the same place Mr Rassol had taken the packets from that he had just sold.

Initially Mr Rasool denied that he was the owner of the shop, claiming that he was just standing in for a friend but did admit he had just sold 2 packets of foreign branded Minsk Cigarettes to a customer for £5 which he agreed to refund.  

In addition to the illegal cigarettes and tobacco, a large quantity of blunt wraps - flavoured tobacco rolling papers were also seized as they were incorrectly labelled.

At Court, Mr Rasool accepted that he had been the Owner of Aqua Supermarket at the time of the offences.

Mr Rasool who has run the shop since January 2015 also said he had subsequently sold it to a new owner 2 weeks after the seizure.

A Coventry shopkeeper has been fined for selling dangerous gun-shaped laser pointers and stocking out of date food.

Mr Nazeer Kogyani, 39, of Stoney Mini Market on the Stoney Stanton Road was fined £500 and ordered to pay over £1200 in Council costs by Coventry Magistrates Court (19 September).

He was prosecuted for offences under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.

Coventry’s Trading Standards team visited the Stoney Mini Market in November 2017 and identified a number of keyrings on sale in the shape of toy guns that were not CE marked and didn’t have any details as to the manufacturer or importer.

These items contained laser pointers that were worryingly strong. As a result, officers seized the items in question. On further inspection of the fridges in the shop a number of packs of beef sausages were also found beyond their use-by date and removed from sale.

Trading Standards later submitted the laser pointers for testing and the results showed it had the potential to cause an eye injury. Public Health England, The Health Protection Agency and the World Health Organisation guidelines all specify lasers of such strength should not be available to the general public.

The court heard that Mr Kogyani was unable to provide any receipts or identify where the laser pointers came from.

Additionally, Trading Standards officers had previously verbally advised and issued a written warning to Mr Kogyani regarding stocking out of date food, and he had also previously accepted a simple caution for similar matters.  

If consumers have seen similar products on sale, or are concerned about shops selling food beyond its use by date, they can contact Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06 to raise their concerns.