Hartlepool trader showed 'complete disregard' for public safety by hiring out 'filthy' and dangerous sunbeds at risk of catching fire or causing electrocution in Hartlepool and North Yorkshire

Businesses run by Graeme Trevor Carlton, 55, continued to advertise on Facebook and hire out sunbeds that failed later safety inspections, despite Trading Standards chiefs ordering him to recall them, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Vertical beds hired out to people’s homes were dirty and unsafe, at risk of overheating and, in one case, could have dealt deadly electric shocks.

Invoices provided stated “we do not give refunds”, contravening consumers’ legal rights.

Hartlepool Borough Council was contacted by Trading Standards in North Yorkshire in April 2018 after a woman complained about a “filthy” sunbed she hired from Golden Brown Sunbeds operated by Carlton Leisure Ltd.

Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said: “The sunbed contravened many separate safety regulations.”

In July 2018 the council demanded the company, of which Carlton was a director, recall its sunbeds due to fears of serious injury or fire.

But it continued to operate, as proved in council test purchases in October 2018 and November 2019, when Carlton and Golden Brown Sunbeds and Sunbed World, in Murray Street, supplied further dangerous sunbeds.

One was at risk of overheating and the cable inner insulation had been cut, potentially giving direct access to 230 volts.

Carlton admitted four charges under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 and two under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.

He was also sentenced for turning a blind eye to cannabis with an estimated street value of £17,000 grown in an outbuilding he rented out in Forester Close, Seaton Carew.

Police discovered a large bag of the harvested drug and the remains of 63 plants in an early morning raid in February 2019.

Carlton was convicted of being concerned in the production of a class B drug after a trial.

He was sentenced to six months prison suspended, for 18 months, and 200 hours unpaid work.

Carlton, of Forester Close, Hartlepool, was ordered to do another 40 hours work for the sunbed offences under an 18-month community order.

Recorder Nathan Adams told him he showed a “complete disregard” for the sunbed customers’ safety.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said Carlton spends much of his time in Tenerife and has put his involvement in sunbeds “well and truly behind him”.