A PLAN by bosses at an Accrington nightclub to throw £500 in cash into a crowd of clubbers has been scrapped after police officers warned it was "fraught with danger."

Opium, in Willow Street, planned to run its Catch the Cash promotion on Fridays to draw customers from bigger towns like Blackburn.

The scheme involved using a machine to blow £500 in notes on to the dance floor for club-goers to grab - and promoters had promised that anybody causing trouble would be kicked out.

But today it was revealed that after a meeting with the police and councillors, club bosses have decided to scrap the idea.

PC Les Sholicar, licensing officer for Accrington Police, said: "The concerns were safety issues for the customers.

"We are looking at worst case scenario but this would have been happening at the end of the evening, so there is a possibility of broken glass on the floor and people crawling around looking for five pound notes. You could get hands trodden on and people trodden on.

"We felt it was very difficult for the club to manage reasonably. It's just fraught with danger."

He added: "In fairness to the club they didn't argue at all. They were very receptive to the points we put forward and agreed it was probably the wisest course of action to look for an alternative method of distributing the cash."

Catch the Cash was due to start tomorrow but has now been called off for an alternative promotion to be found.

One suggestion has been for a game similar to one featured on popular 90s television show The Crystal Maze, where a person stands in a large cage while the cash is blown about by fans, along with blank pieces of paper. The notes the competitor catches they get to keep.

Peter Robinson, team leader of Hyndburn Council's environmental health service, said: "We have no objections to the concept of the event but we must consider the safety of the people attending the club."

The club was unavailable for comment.