The owner of an indoor trampoline park could face jail after failing to report four kids breaking their legs at the attraction. A boy and girl, both three-years-old, and two more girls aged nine and 11 were injured while jumping on trampolines and foam pits at Supajump in Trident Trade Park, Cardiff, between April 2018 and August 2019.
The venue's director Philip Booth, 60, from St Mellons, Cardiff was told by a district judge that he had shown 'blatant disregard for the law' and the offences are so serious he would be referred to the crown court for sentencing, Wales Online reports.
In September 2022, after a prosecution by Cardiff City Council, Booth pleaded guilty to four counts of failing to report an accident which saw a victim taken to hospital and two counts of failing to ensure people were not exposed to health and safety risks from using play equipment.
On Thursday at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court, District Judge Steve Harmes said: “I’ve assessed this case at the very high culpability, category two harm, because injuries such as this are serious and could’ve been more serious.”
He added another young woman suffered a spinal injury at the trampoline park but Booth had not been charged over that incident.
He continued: “That wasn’t identified and you won’t be sentenced for it, but that’s the sort of thing that can happen in these cases, so I don’t think my sentencing powers are adequate in this case.
"You clearly and blatantly disregarded the law, disregarded the advice you were given by the council, and all these injuries occurred, none of which were reported, some of which there was an effort on staff’s part to minimise them by telling people to cross things out on forms that were handed in about what happened.
“So for all those reasons, I’m going to commit you for sentencing to the crown court.”
The judge said he would only have only had the power to sentence Booth to a minimum of six months in prison.
He made an order banning the identification of the children involved in the incidents. Booth will be sentenced on April 27 at Cardiff Crown Court.
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