SHOP owner Guishan Aftab told a court she had sacked her son after he sold fireworks to a 15-year-old.

Aftab, 40, of Branch Road, Burnley, pleaded guilty at Reedley Magistrates' Court to selling fireworks to a person apparently under the age of 18.

She was fined £300 and ordered to pay £227 costs.

Nicholas McNamara, prosecuting for the Trading Standards Department, said the case resulted from a test purchase programme using children in accordance with Home Office guidelines.

At 3.15pm on October 26 a 15-year-old boy went into the Super Value Mini Market in Branch Road and asked for a packet of air bombs.

He was sold them for £1.25 and was not asked his age or for proof of identity.

A department inspector was in the shop posing as a customer. The person who served the boy identified himself as son of the proprietor.

Aftab who was not in the shop at the time said she had told her son not to sell fireworks to youngsters and that she had since dismissed him from the business.

Aftab, who was not represented, told the court: "I finished my son in the shop because I had told him not to sell fireworks to young people."

After the hearing Aftab said she agreed that fireworks should not be sold to children under the age of 18 because of the potential dangers.

"That is why I dismissed my son," she said.