YORK Trading Standards today warned businesses against compromising child safety for extra profit after a company which produced a potentially "lethal" Hallowe'en cape was landed with a £11,200 court bill.

A Dracula cape bought as a test purchase by York trading standards officers, at Price Pounders, in Low Petergate, failed a flammability test, which meant that it could catch fire too easily.

Trading Standards seized 467 capes from the shop. The capes will now be destroyed. The shop is run by Supergift Ltd.

"These capes were potentially lethal. Our testers said the speed at which the flame ripped through the material was as bad as they had ever seen. This was a product designed to be worn by children around Hallowe'en, a time of year when fires and candles are commonplace,'' said Matthew Broxall, of York trading standards.

"'City of York Council's Trading Standards team take these issues very seriously, and will not hesitate in bringing action against businesses which compromise child safety for extra profit. We are delighted that the courts have imposed the maximum fine available to them. We believe this sends out exactly the right message."

After a two-day trial at York Magistrates Court, Woolbro (Distributors) Ltd, of Morley, Leeds, were convicted of breaching toy safety legislation and, after hearing that it had previous child safety law convictions, fined it £5,000. The company was also ordered to pay £6,277 prosecution costs.

The magistrates said that the distributors had not tested any of a batch of 46,000 Dracula capes imported from the Far East and had relied on certificates from their overseas suppliers.

The company said it had no mitigation after its conviction. It had presented expert evidence to challenge the council's expert evidence at trial, but had conceded that an overseas safety certificate for the capes was false.

No-one at Woolbro or Supergift was available for comment on the case.

Trading standards officer Barry Williams co-ordinated the team effort that brought the case after officers made the test purchase in October 2002.

Updated: 10:50 Thursday, May 06, 2004