A FIREWORKS enthusiast has branded as ridiculous a raid on his Didcot home in which officers confiscated chemicals used for experimental displays.

Professional pyrotechnics expert Karl Shead, 21, was surprised when a police counter terrorist unit knocked at his door with a council trading standards team.

He was told police and trading standards officers had received an anonymous tip-off that he was hoarding a stockpile of explosives.

On Tuesday, officers arrived at his aunt’s house in Collingwood Avenue, where Mr Shead lodges, and took away powders and mixing bowls kept in the garage for small-scale fireworks experiments. No arrest was made.

Richard Rockall, of Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards department, said: “We believe large and unsafe display fireworks were being set off in a garden that was not big enough to allow safe operating distances, even for typical consumer fireworks.

"We also found evidence experiments involving the mixing of explosive substances were being carried out and quite clearly this gross stupidity would have been extremely dangerous and potentially lethal.”

But Mr Shead, who has worked for fireworks companies for three years, said local fire and police officers had always been fully informed about when his displays were taking place.

He said his chemicals had always been stored safely, and thousands of other enthusiasts across the country legally kept similar substances.

He added: “The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. I had the same chemicals that you would find in a chemistry set. The trading standards officers even admitted that they didn’t have a clue what any of the stuff was,” he said.

“They are completely over-reacting to something which is perfectly legal. I was doing this in a safe and professional manner on private land, and the law is on my side.”

He added: “The worst that could have happened was that I could have burnt myself. There was absolutely no risk to neighbours.”

Police said there were no records of complaints, but neighbours said they were fed up with Mr Shead hosting regular fireworks displays in his garden.

One, who asked not to be named, said: “They are far too big for the garden – it’s amazing he hasn’t set something on fire.”