A husband and wife who were fined for selling hazardous children’s teething bracelets have blamed it on a labelling error.

Simon and Marie Clarke, who run Love Amber from Haygreen Road, in Witham, appeared at Colchester Magistrates Court last Tuesday and admitted two charges of breaching General Product Safety Regulations.

The regulations state no producer should sell a product unless it is safe.

The charges related to two amber combined anklet and bracelets, designed to help ease children’s teething pain, which were found by Essex Trading Standards to be dangerous to children because they were too dainty and could be a choking or ingestion risk to children under three.

They were each fined £500 and ordered to pay £2,198 costs and a £50 victim surcharge.

The couple posted on their business’s Facebook page after the court hearing that they did not have the correct label on the products at the time and therefore decided to plead guilty.

The post read: “The allegations mentioned date from January 2014 (13 months ago) and were due to a labelling error.

“We did not have the correct label on the products test purchased and therefore we were guilty and pleaded as such."

See this week's Witham Times for the full story.