{"id":23444,"date":"2025-09-15T08:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/23444\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T08:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:58:08","slug":"judge-fines-gisborne-wholesaler-140k-for-toy-cars-that-posed-risk-to-young-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/23444\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge fines Gisborne wholesaler $140k for toy cars that posed risk to young children"},"content":{"rendered":"

The charges were laid under fair trading laws<\/a> after it was found the small cars failed to meet product safety standard laws because the wheels could easily come off.<\/p>\n

Just over 100 were returned during a later recall.<\/p>\n

\"HundredsHundreds of the toy cars are still thought to be in circulation, despite an earlier product recall. Photo \/ Commerce Commission<\/p>\n

Judge Evangelos Thomas said during sentencing in the Auckland District Court<\/a> that the company\u2019s culpability was \u201chighly careless\u201d.<\/p>\n

Three months before Allen Trading made the order, it was put on notice regarding standards applicable to a different product.<\/p>\n

The brightly coloured toy car was \u201cgenerously sized\u201d, had no moving or opening parts other than the wheels, which were on a simple axle and could be easily detached.<\/p>\n

They were sold in brown cardboard boxes, which contained a number of individual units that were not packaged or labelled. <\/p>\n

The label on the box showed the toy was intended for children<\/a> aged 3 and above, but it was accepted it would have been an appealing toy to many children younger than 3. <\/p>\n

Judge Thomas said Allen Trading, which operated as a wholesaler, had no control over how the individual units were packaged or advertised for sale by a retailer.<\/p>\n

He said when the company was told about the commission\u2019s investigation, it triggered a recall that led to 138 of the toys being returned. <\/p>\n

It was not known how many remained in circulation but it could be hundreds, Judge Thomas said.<\/p>\n

He said while there had been no reports of a child having choked while playing with the toy they remained a risk.<\/p>\n

In setting a sentencing starting point, Judge Thomas said they were products that carried the greatest risk of abuse, through being aimed at children and used over a long time, likely at times when a child was not being supervised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not simply rolled or pushed but they are thrown and kicked and stood on. There is a vital need for compliance as a result,\u201d Judge Thomas said.<\/p>\n

He said based on the company already being on notice with another product, Allen Trading did not have an adequate excuse.<\/p>\n

Judge Thomas said while the two products were different, Allen Trading was aware the safety of children using its toys was something governed by strict safety standards. <\/p>\n

The maximum fine on each charge was $600,000.<\/p>\n

From the lowest possible starting point of a $200,000 fine, the company was given a 10% discount for its co-operation, the fact it had traded for some time and has responded responsibly and fully to the investigation.<\/p>\n

Judge Thomas said in fining the company $28,000 on each charge there was nothing about the company\u2019s circumstances that meant it should not pay the appropriate fine.<\/p>\n

Allen Trading has not responded to NZME\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The charges were laid under fair trading laws after it was found the small cars failed to meet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24171,74,1558,138,6799,1061,24175,124,127,6204,8987,2082,12506,6559,24176,24174,3958,111,139,11552,69,24173,24178,13120,7192,24035,4499,1361,61,24172,24177,5977,18286,102,4741],"class_list":["post-23444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-140k","tag-after","tag-been","tag-business","tag-cars","tag-children","tag-choke","tag-could","tag-despite","tag-fine","tag-fines","tag-for","tag-gisborne","tag-heavy","tag-hundreds","tag-importer","tag-judge","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-notice","tag-nz","tag-posed","tag-recall","tag-remain","tag-risk","tag-selling","tag-small","tag-that","tag-to","tag-toy","tag-unaccounted","tag-which","tag-wholesaler","tag-with","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}