Check your “beauty salon” is A-OK

Residents who use beauty salons in the borough have been reminded to check that the business has a current licence covering any special treatments they offer. The warning comes after the owner of Sapiano’s, a salon on the ground floor of Sleaford House on Blackthorn Street, Bow, was found guilty of fraud.

Sapiano’s used to have a special treatments licence, but it expired and was not renewed. The owner then forged an up to date licence in order to reach a business agreement with Wowcher – which checked the licence out with the Council, bringing the fraud to light and leading to the Council prosecuting the owner of the business. If the company had applied for a legitimate licence, it would have been subject to safety checks from the Council. As it did not do this, the checks were not carried out. The owner of Sapiano’s would have been well aware of this, as the business had held a licence before. This made the forging of the license an issue of cold and calculated fraud against the public.

The case was heard at Thames Magistrates’ Court on 8th October. The owner pleaded guilty of creating and supplying a fraudulent special treatments licence to secure business deals, and offence under Section 1 of The Fraud Act 2006. The penalty was a fine of £2,500 and an order to pay £3,000 in costs and a £220 victim surcharge. The company director was given a two-year conditional discharge and personally ordered to pay a further £425.42.

After the hearing, the Council pointed out that in accordance with the London Local Authorities Act 1991, every business in Tower Hamlets which advertises or carries out any special treatments such as manicures, pedicures, facials, massage, etc., must have a valid special treatments licence. The licence is issued by the Council’s Health and Safety Team and the process involves rigorous safety checks in order to ensure the health and safety of the public is not put at any unnecessary risk.

If consumers or businesses have any concerns relating to Health and Safety, they should contact the Council’s Consumer and Business Regulations service on 020-7364 5008 or via email to: trading.standards@towerhamlets.gov.uk

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