"Pure luck" led to the discovery of a four-ton £40,000 haul of fireworks being illegally stored at an Essex house last week.

Essex Trading Standards officer, Joe Maerz, said the haul was recovered in Brentwood after officers on routine inspection work just happened to see something suspicious while passing the house.

Further inquiries uncovered the massive haul being kept in a storeroom at the back of the private house and officers moved in to move it to safe storage last Thursday.

They acted quickly as even shopkeepers who are registered are not allowed to keep more than 250kg of fireworks on their premises.

And they condemned the haul as "massively exceeding that level and posing a potential danger especially stored as it was in a residential area."

Mr Maerz said: "It was pure luck for us to have uncovered it but obviously very bad luck for those who were storing it that they were spotted.

"It was purely coincidental that something was seen, noted as suspicious and acted upon.

"At a rough estimate there were four tons being kept, which at retail value works out to £10,000 a ton, amounting to a total of £40,000.

''We have no indication whether the goods were being kept for ongoing sale or display purposes. All were originally imported.''

Mr Maerz said that there are strict conditions laid down in explosive legislation and it is the department's responsibility for enforcing them.

Anyone who stores fireworks, other than for their private use, has to be registered with the local authority.

"This is so checks can be made to ensure that the storage is safe and no one is put at risk,'' he said.

"We have a duty under the Explosive Act 1875 to register all occupiers of premises used to store fireworks.

"There are very strict conditions laid down as to the maximum quantity and the manner in which they are stored. We are dealing with a dangerous product and therefore view our responsibilities very seriously.

"It is too early to say for sure but the matter may well end up being reported to police once we have investigated further."

Brentwood Police confirmed they had no knowledge of the seizure but that due to the size of the haul they could well become involved and charges brought.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.