IT was not prices that plunged when Julie Glover went out shopping.

Magistrates at Bury heard how the shopper took an unexpected tumble - right through a trapdoor.

The court was told how she bounced down stone steps to end up in the storeroom cellar at Horse Bits Limited in Ramsbottom.

In a health and safety case brought by Bury Council, Miss Julie Sou, prosecuting, described how Miss Glover had gone to the premises in Bridge Street to look at saddles.

She was making her way through the heavily congested aisles towards the stairs when all of a sudden she plunged through the open trapdoor and ended up in the cellar below.

Fortunately she was not seriously injured. Miss Sou said: "There were no warning signs, rails or guards around the trapdoor. It was not visible to Miss Glover."

The court was told that shop owner, Mrs Hilary Hartley, had been "guarding" the cellar entrance but had gone to serve another customer and did not realise that Miss Glover was heading in that direction.

In court, she pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that persons were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

In Mrs Hartley's defence it was claimed that the accident was the result of nothing more than "30 seconds of carelessness".

The company was fined £400 and ordered to pay £557 costs.

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