Tanning salon owner jailed after girl suffers horrific injuries

GRAPHIC IMAGES WARNING

A former tanning salon owner has been locked up after an underage girl was left with severe burns and permanent scars after using a faulty sunbed.

The young customer collapsed after spending time on a "very unsafe" sunbed at Abyss Tanning Studio on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough. The bed, which had exposed tubes, lacked an emergency cord, and was meant to be out of use.

The 15-year-old described her ordeal as "14 minutes that changed my life". The shop also failed to conduct age and safety checks for the underage customer.

Suffering extensive burns to various parts of her body, including her face, arms, legs, and right shoulder, the girl required plastic surgery and now lives with permanent scars.

She had used the sunbed twice within two days, with no checks on her age or skin type by the business, and fainted during her second eight-minute session, according to Middlesbrough Council.

Almost three years later, she is still undergoing treatment as she saw 26-year-old Ryan Sihra, who ran the studio, receive his sentence at Teesside Magistrates' Court. The sunbed was not meant to be used until tubes were replaced as they were "way out of tolerance", said Thomas Durance, prosecuting for Middlesbrough Council.

He said: "The bed in question had insufficient guards. That's why injuries have been sustained. She had skin grafts. It's been a horrific time for this young individual.

"The injuries are just horrific. Luckily the healing process is better, there's obviously a lot of scarring still there."

Council officers had visited the salon less than a month earlier after a complaint that the beds felt too hot, and found half of the six beds were out of use or failed the inspection. The shop had no log of refusals for under-18s, it was later discovered, reports Teeside Live.

Sihra said he was on holiday when the girl was injured in June 2022. He told officers an "out of order" sign was on the bed when he left and had been removed by the time he returned.

In the weeks after the incident, officers found tags and signs had been taken off the beds. Sihra said "it was bad for business and it didn't look good", claiming one tag had caught on his T-shirt and got agitated with officers.

Mr Durance said: "These beds have been ruled dangerous and should not be used. They've been continually used throughout the period.

"It's probably some sort of miracle somebody else hasn't been hurt."

But he said this was no comfort to the teenage girl, who spoke of the impact on her life in a moving statement read to the court.

She described feeling suicidal and said she still suffered from anxiety: "When I came out of the sunbed, I knew by my younger sister's face that I was going to need to go to hospital for treatment, but I could not know that the treatment would last three years and it is still not complete.

"I must live with this scar for the rest of my life and the toll it has taken on me can't even be articulated."

Sihra, of Oxford Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, admitted two charges under health and safety regulations - his first conviction.

Nick Woodhouse, defending, said Sihra took over his father's business but, with ADHD and other health difficulties, found it difficult to cope. Sihra maintained he instructed his stuff to check customers' identification but this did not happen during the girl's visits while he was on holiday.

"He is adamant that if he were present in the shop that never would have happened and she would not have been allowed to use the beds," said Mr Woodhouse. "If he wasn't away this would never have happened.

"He accepts full responsibility. He's never sought to minimise or justify himself."

He said Sihra wrote to the court setting out his "genuine regret" for what happened, and had sold the shop because of his anxiety. He argued Sihra, now unemployed and receiving Universal Credit, could be rehabilitated to tackle his "thinking deficits".

Katherine Evans, chairing the magistrates' bench, told Sihra: "You intentionally breached and disregarded health and safety law. Evidence suggests that you were partially influenced by financial gain."

Taking into account the physical, psychological and emotional harm caused by the offending, she jailed Sihra for 40 weeks and ordered him to pay £400 costs and a £180 surcharge. She said compensation would have to be left to the civil courts as she could only order him to pay a "derisory sum".

Sihra muttered to the judge as he left, then turned to the public gallery where the girl sat and said: "I've just lost my mum. I hope you're happy." This sparked an angry response, with people calling him a "clown" and a "silly man" before they apologised to the magistrates.

Environmental health and trading standards teams carried out safety checks on all sunbed operators within Middlesbrough after the incident in June 2022.

The teenager's mother said after the hearing: "We are grateful for the hard work that has been done by the environmental health and trading standards teams and that the trader has finally accepted responsibility. It goes some way towards her recovery."

Councillor Janet Thompson, Middlesbrough Council's executive member for neighbourhoods, said: "It's all too easy to take tanning salons for granted, and to assume they're safe because those running them know what they're doing. This dreadful case is a timely reminder of how badly wrong things can go when the owners of such establishments show a cavalier and reckless disregard for the law and for people's safety.

"This young woman has been scarred for life, and I can only applaud her bravery in helping us to prosecute the perpetrator, and I wish her all the best with her ongoing recovery. It's also a reminder that no-one under 18 should be using sunbeds, and that operators have a legal duty to carry out the appropriate checks – if they don't we will prosecute."

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