Council offers free safety checks for child car seats to parents in Milton Keynes

A team of experts will be on hand at the Kingston Centre, outside Costa Coffee, on Thursday March 12.

They will be there between 10am and 2pm.

"Come along and see us and find out about car safety. Our team will check you child car seats and make sure they are securely fitted and meet safety regulations," said a council spokesman.

Six months ago, a Milton Keynes Council Trading Standards investigation resulted in massive fines for Mamas and Papas Ltd after it was proved they had distributed 150,000 unsafe car seats.

The sentencing was the culmination of more than three years of complex investigating carried out by the trading standards team, who tested the Mercury brand seats in a crash simulation with a child-size dummy.

The seats were found to crack and allow excessive head movement, which could cause head and other injuries to a child.

Sold in Argos between January 2013 and April 2016, they were marketed as suitable to be used for children from birth to four years old.

The model has now been recalled and anybody still using one of the Mercury seats was told to top immediately and return it to Argos for a full refund.

Sue Crawley, Head of Trading Standards said at the time of the court case: “We spent a lot of time investigating this case and hope the prosecution sends a message to other businesses large and small that Trading Standards takes a hard line on the supply of unsafe and potentially dangerous goods.”