CONSUMER watchdogs are cracking down on a company which offers potentially dangerous air pistols on a premium rate telephone line - after it was highlighted in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

And it has also been revealed that the firm was fined £5,000 earlier this year following a catalogue of complaints from the public.

ICSTIS, the watchdog for the premium rate phoneline industry, is proposing to tighten the regulations surrounding the availability of the air pistols so only people whose names are on the phone bill will be allowed to make an order.

The crackdown on Chester-based Telephone Communications International Ltd follows an investigation by Lancashire trading standards officers.

The trading standards probe had been sparked after the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed how easy it was for the 6mm Ruger air pistols, which fire potentially dangerous ballbearings, to be obtained by children for the cost of a telephone call.

Jim Potts, Lancashire's chief trading standards officer, today praised the Lancashire Evening Telegraph for highlighting the issue.

He said: "This is an excellent example of how between the trading standards department and the Evening Telegraph, we have helped to make a difference. We only got involved after the Evening Telegraph alerted us.

"ICSTIS is putting forward proposals which mean only the person whose name is on the phone bill will be allowed to ring this telephone line.

"At the moment anybody who says they are over 18 can use it and any child could say that."

Details of the "Brilliant Air Pistols" offer, which includes 50 rounds of ammunition, are contained in a glossy brochure which people can send off for after reading advertisements in national newspapers.

They say that if people call the number, listen to a message, say they are over 18 and then leave their name, an air pistol will be sent in the post. The calls are £1 per minute and the total cost of a call to obtain a pistol is £19.

There have also been other cases of people calling similar phone lines without permission, from work and from home.

Lancashire Police have also expressed concern that the guns could get into the wrong hands.

An official written ruling from ICSTIS in relation to the Chester-based firm said: "Complaints were received from members of the public, who expressed concern over the types of products including air pistols adult videos and cigarettes that could be purchased by calling the premium rate numbers."

It said the company was fined £5,000 earlier this year due to the "seriousness" of the breaches of its code of practice.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.