A CASH and carry company has been fined for supplying toy caps which burned a boy's hand when he fell on them.

Hancocks Cash and Carry was fined £1,000 at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court yesterday, for supplying a toy that contained firework caps that did not comply with safety regulations.

The company, based at Loughborough, Leicestershire, supplied Brenda and Terry's, in Church Street, in Shildon, with a toy aeroplane and 12 toy caps that attached to the nose of the plane and exploded when they hit the ground.

Terry Fenwick, prosecuting on behalf of Durham County Council, told the court that on April 14 last year a 12-year-old boy had burned himself when he fell on the caps that his mother had bought from the shop.

Mr Fenwick told the court that some safety labelling was missing and Hancocks' test certificate for the toy was in Spanish and did not identify the tests.

But Philip Kramer, representing the cash and carry, told the court that when shop owner John Ayre heard the toy plane had caused damage he gave one packet to the toy's mother to send to trading standards and withdrew the rest from the shelves. Hancocks also withdrew them from the suppliers.

Magistrates fined Hancocks £1,000 and ordered them to pay £85 costs.