A SHOP owner was given a £1,000 fine for selling air bomb fireworks to a 12-year-old girl.

Atesh Ramesh Patel, aged 24, pleaded guilty at Bolton Magistrates Court to selling a firework -- a packet of £2.99 Thunder King Air Bombs -- to a person apparently under 18 at his shop, News and Booze, in Deane Road, Bolton.

The court was told that the girl had volunteered to buy fireworks to help trading standards officers crackdown on shops selling fireworks illegally.

Catherine Waudby, prosecuting, said two Bolton Council trading standards officers went into Patel's shop on October 31 before the child to witness any sale.

Mrs Waudby said the child entered the shop and an assistant, Mr Patel's sister Darshna, sold her a packet of air bomb fireworks without checking the girl's age.

The court heard that Mr Patel had not been in the shop at the time and, when confronted by a trading standards officer, Miss Patel said her brother had told her not to sell any fireworks to anyone under 18.

Patel said he had "drummed" it into his staff not sell fireworks to under 18 year olds. He said: "I am not happy about this, but I wasn't there. I wouldn't have served her."

Patel said he did not normally leave his sister alone in the shop and they tried their best not to sell fireworks to under-age children.

Since the incident Patel said he had sent a note to staff, repeating to them not to sell fireworks to children under 18, and that he had received a booklet about the laws.

Sentencing Patel to the £1,000 fine, and ordering him to pay £250 in costs, bench chairman David Morgan said Patel could have gone to prison for the offence.

Mr Morgan said: "The only thing in your favour is that you have pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, which we give you credit for. This is seriously aggravated for two reasons. One, because the child was only 12 and it must have been obvious that she was nowhere near the age to purchase fireworks.

"Secondly, the fireworks were not sparklers. They were air bombs which could cause extremely serious injuries to a child. There have been incidents reported of children and adults losing limbs."

Mr Morgan ordered Patel to pay the fine and costs within two months.

SHOP OWNER: Atesh Patel

said he had told staff not to sell fireworks to under-age children