THE owner of a former ‘legal high’ shop that sold products which posed a ‘very real risk to life and health’ has avoided jail.

Darren Manley, who was a director of RAD Trading Limited, which ran the Red Eye shop in Oxford’s Cowley Road, pleaded guilty at Oxford Crown Court last week to eight counts of supplying a dangerous product.

RAD, of Murdock Road, Bicester, admitted the same eight offences.

Yesterday at the same court Manley, 36, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years and he and the company were ordered to pay a total of £120,000 in fines and costs.

The shop, which closed in 2015, sold so-called legal highs under names such as Charlie Sheen, Blow and Clockwork Orange.

They had similar effects to illegal drugs but were not covered by drug laws at the time.

Yesterday the court heard that officers from Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards had purchased some of the substances from the shop on four occasions in July, November and December 2014.

But officers and a police officer visited the shop beforehand to raise concerns about the sale of the substances.

Nigel Lickley QC, prosecuting, said that some of the substances were then sent off for testing by clinical toxicologist Professor Paul Durgan and were found to contain methiopropamine, an ‘amphetamine-type substance’.

Mr Lickley said: “There have been a number of UK deaths reported where it is felt that this substance has contributed, so Prof Durgan concluded these substances were dangerous.”

The court was told that during an investigation by Sussex Police in 2013 ‘small manufacturing plant’ used for packaging the substances was found in Manley’s flat.

Writing on the packs said they were not for human consumption, but Mr Lickey said: “We suggest that was well known and the company knew, or should have presumed, that there was a risk of that consumption because of the information that had been given and the public awareness of these products in 2013 and 2014 in particular.”

Red Eye closed in 2015 and ‘legal highs’ have since been made illegal by the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

Jonathan Kirk QC, defending, said there had been a ‘confusing picture’ that emerged among regulators in relation to ‘legal highs’.

He said: “There has to be some awareness on his part that these substances were potentially dangerous.

“But there was certainly also a misunderstanding as to whether it was lawful to sell these king of products or not.

“There is a thread of decency that runs through him.”

He added that Manley, of Curlew Place, Portishead, Bristol, has a partner with two children who live with him and who he supports.

Sentencing, Mr Recorder Martin Heslop QC said despite warnings he and the company continued to sell the ‘dangerous products which presented a very real risk to life and health if consumed’.

In relation to the packaging he said: “I am afraid to say I regard this as little more as an attempt by the defendants to shield themselves and avoid responsibility for dangerous products which they knew should not have been sold because they were dangerous.

“They were designed to attract a young and vulnerable market whose attempt was misguidedly to ingest these products.

Manley and the company were given 12 months to pay the fines, which totalled £20,000 each, and costs, which totalled £40,000 each.