Raids expected after cheap phone charger kills mother of two
Shops selling dodgy USB phone chargers will be raided by NSW Fair Trading in the coming days after a mother of two was electrocuted by a faulty charger on the central coast.
Sheryl Anne Aldeguer, 28, was found dead with burns on her ears and chest after a dodgy charger sent a high voltage through her body inside her Gosford home, according to Fair Trading. A mobile phone business is facing prosecution over the sale of the charger.
The Filipino national had been Skypeing with a friend overseas with her notebook computer resting on her chest when she died some time on the night of April 22, a friend told Fairfax Media.
She was found dead by friends the following day on an air mattress inside a room she rented.
It is believed a dodgy $4.95 phone charger sent a high-voltage electrical pulse into her phone, which transferred to the earphones she had connected to a laptop.
The 28-year-old was to start work as a theatre nurse at Gosford Hospital within days of her death.
She had spent six months in Melbourne converting her nursing training to Australian standards and she had hoped her young family would join her within months.
Fair Trading NSW's Lynelle Collins said Ms Aldeguer was holding her mobile phone, which was plugged into a wall socket at the time of her death.
"The voltage seems to travel up through the faulty charger into her phone and she was wearing earplugs and also operating a laptop, which was also plugged into a power point," Ms Collins said.
"So the [electricity] travelled back down through the earphones to the laptop and into the power point.
"Two-hundred-and-forty volts [then] travelled up into the phone, which obviously the phone isn't designed to handle.
"Bodies are very good conductors of electricity so it's travelled through her body."
Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe said the owners of the Campsie business that sold her the non-compliant charger could face fines of up to $875,000 and a two-year custodial sentence.
It is believed the deceased bought the charger from Mobile Accessories Outlet, which is registered to Jin Hua Sheng Australia International Trading.
The business rented a shop within the Campsie centre on Amy Lane but also sold products in a separate stall outside.
"We will certainly be further investigating an outlet which we have detected have supplied these types of non-complaint articles [chargers] with a view to prosecution," Mr Stowe said.
Fair Trading officers swooped on the business a week ago and seized hundreds of dodgy and non-complaint USB chargers.
"All the products have been removed," Ms Collins said. "We went out there as soon as possible when we were notified."
Fair Trading NSW said the last death involving an electrical item was in 2009 and there had been nothing faulty with the device.
There were three deaths by electrocution in 2012-13 and five so far in 2013-14, Ms Collins said.
Mr Stowe said a number of USB-style chargers, travel adaptors and power boards that did not meet Australian safety standards had been removed from sale at a mobile phone accessory stall.
He said authorities were not aware until now of the large number of the cheap chargers that were available for sale in NSW.
"This is the first time we've been aware of them in large numbers," he said.
While this was so far the only known fatality potentially associated with the devices, Mr Stowe wanted the public to be informed as soon as possible to avoid further deaths.
"We're only familiar with this one incident and it does look like one of these devices are implicated in the electrocution," he said.
NSW opposition fair trading spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk condemned authorities for the time it took to notify the public after the death.
"It's been two months since the tragic death and just under two weeks since the raid at Campsie," she said. "The faulty products have potentially been sold to hundreds of consumers who have been put at risk."
A NSW police spokesman said he was not aware of any case where a business or owner had been charged for selling items that resulted in injury or death.
Police would not comment on whether they were considering criminal charges but indicated it was more likely a civil matter.
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