THE prosecution against a Chester shop owner who sold so-called legal highs collapsed because trading standards did not test the chemical substances involved.

Sean Alex Ellman, 40, and his company Salsa Enterprises Ltd, which runs Dr Hermans Hed shop in Eastgate Row, Chester, had denied charges in relation to the sale of the drug Gogaine.

Cheshire West and Chester Council alleged they failed to provide purchasers with sufficient information about the risks.

But District Judge Brigid Knight, presiding at Chester magistrates, found there was no case to answer against Mr Ellman of Parkville Road, Manchester – who is the son of Liverpool Labour MP Louise Ellman – or his company.

This was because she could not assess the potential risks as the sachets bought in test purchases had never been opened.

She said: “I’m afraid this case has fallen down pretty much at the outset because of the failure to analyse the product, the subject of the charge. I would have expected chapter and verse on exactly what is in them.”

Judge Knight said the product had been labelled as ‘harmful’, ‘not for human consumption’ and ‘sold on the face of it as research chemicals’.

Given consumer protection legislation was designed to protect the ‘average consumer’, the labelling ‘probably has got round’ the regulations.

However, Judge Knight praised trading standards for pursing the prosecution even though it had failed.

Calling for ‘protection for those who are not properly protecting themselves’, she added: “It was an important case to bring and highlights the difficulties there are in relation to so-called legal highs.

“They are an absolute nightmare for any prosecuting authority. I referred earlier in this case to the valiant efforts of trading standards to try and fill in a blank in a grey area where parliament has not yet stepped in. I hope they will in short course.”

She warned retailers prepared to sell ‘legal highs’, in the knowledge they would be consumed, that they could nevertheless be charged with gross negligence if a death occurred.

Cheshire West and Chester Council described the outcome as ‘extremely disappointing’.