Bexley is looking to crack down on beauty traders conducting illegal practice within the borough.

The crackdown comes after Donna Nails and Tanning in Welling was caught using unqualified practitioners to carry out licensed beauty treatments.

The trading standards team recently seized 401 counterfeit items from the nail bar - which was fined over £2000 for breaching serious health and safety regulations.

Counterfeit items such as the ones Bexley have previously seized, do not go through normal testing procedures and potentially contain dangerous substances.

The Trading Standards team have been working closely with a range of examining bodies, to protect the public from rogue beauty traders.

Councillor Peter Craske said: “We take qualification fraud very seriously and regularly check that local beauty businesses have the required certificates.

“People who practice when they are not qualified to do could cause serious harm to the public.”

“Objections to several applications have been made, and one applicant was deemed to be “not a fit and proper person” because they had provided a fake qualification for themselves.