Beko pleads guilty to safety risk charges

Beko has been fined £76,660 after pleading guilty to 23 charges relating to its failure to notify the authorities of potential safety risks.

The company has its headquarters in Watford and the prosecution was brought by Herfordshire Trading Standards.

This relates to some models of Beko cookers, that, if used in very particular circumstances can create a serious risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The General Product Safety Regulations require firms to alert trading standards to potential safety hazards.

By March 2009 Beko knew of a risk which can occur when some of its cookers are converted for use with bottled gas (LPG) yet trading standards were not informed in the way required for more than four years - not until August 2013 - after an investigation by ITV News. Beko says this was an "oversight".

23 models made before 2009 are involved. Although 150,000 appliances were sold they only become potentially dangerous when converted for use with bottled gas - it's believed that involves 2000 LPG conversion kits - and of those around 836 remain unaccounted for - the rest having had a modification to remove the risk.

The affected cookers can emit poisonous carbon monoxide if used with the grill door closed, which is against the manufacturers instructions in its product manuals.

Some of these cookers were also sold under a different brand name Flavel.

None of these issues affect Beko cookers made after 2009. Full details of the models involved are listed on Beko's website.