A tanning shop owner has been jailed after a teenage girl fainted while using a sunbed and suffered nasty burns that left her feeling suicidal.

The 15-year-old girl visited Abyss Tanning Studio in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, and was allowed to use a sunbed for the second time in two days without staff checking her age or skin type (you have to be over 18 to use a sunbed in the UK).

8 minutes into the 14-minute session, the girl fainted and lay against the tanning tubes which were themselves insufficiently protected.

The girl suffered severe burns to her face, shoulder and legs that needed plastic surgery and have left her with permanent scarring. We’ve shared the images below but been warned – they’re pretty horrific.

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The sunbed also didn’t have an emergency cord that’s required to be there for customers to pull – not that this would be much help if you’ve passed out.

The shop’s owner Ryan Sihra has now been jailed for 20 weeks following a hearing at Teesside Magistrates’ Court where he admitted two charges under Health and Safety at Work legislation. He admitted failing to carry out statutory age and safety checks.

In a victim impact statement, the teenager described feeling suicidal: ‘When I came out of the sunbed, I knew by my younger sister’s face that I was going to need to go to hospital for treatment, but I could not know that the treatment would last three years and it is still not complete.

‘I must live with this scar for the rest of my life and the toll it has taken on me can’t even be articulated.’

Damn, that’s awful, and a stark reminder of the dangers of sunbeds. It’s so sad that a 15-year-old girl feels the need to use a sunbed in the first place, but it gets even more dangerous when you’re dealing with a reckless company who have a complete disregard for customer safety. Come to think of it, there’s a pretty good argument for sunbeds and tanning shops to be banned completely when you see things like this.

If you want to avoid something like ever happening to you (and to avoid the health risks in general), avoiding using sunbeds and always wear sun block. Never forget:

For the tanning shop owner who found a CORPSE on the sunbed after a woman had a 2-hour session, click HERE.