Nick Oldham: Rights and Wrongs

Thousands of pounds of counterfeit items are being bought as the real thing by unsuspecting buyers, according to West Yorkshire Trading Standards officers who will be on the look-out for the traders in the run-up to the festive period.

And they are warning people hunting for Christmas presents to resist cut-price offers on leading brand names they see at the markets - as the goods are often of inferior quality.

The advice follows the successful prosecution of five traders after a raid on a regular Sunday market held at Cannon Mills in Bradford earlier this year.

More than £10,000 items of clothing - from sweatshirts to jeans - were seized, some carrying top names like Calvin Klein, Armani and Valentino.

Trading standards divisional manager Paul Cooper said none of the five prosecuted under the Trademarks Act was from the Bradford area.

"The Bradford venue is obviously extremely profitable because two of them came from Manchester and the others were from Derby, Preston and Rochdale," he said.

"They presumably target Cannon Mills because it is very popular - it must be worth their while to travel over here otherwise they wouldn't come.

"There were about 800 items seized which had fake brand names and were of an inferior quality."

The five, who have all been prosecuted separately during the year, all pleaded guilty to offences under the Act, were given community service orders, had the goods seized and were ordered to pay all the prosecution costs.

"People need to be more discerning - and use some common sense," Mr Cooper said.

"Companies like Calvin Klein and Armani - because of their standing - are very particular about who their retailers are and they won't let any Tom, Dick or Harry sell their products - especially on a stall at a Sunday market.

"You have to differentiate between places like John Street Market - where you have the same people on the same stall day in, day out, year after year - and a Sunday market where people just turn up on the day with something to sell and then disappear.

"If you go to this type of venue, our experience has taught us there is likely to be a lot of fake and counterfeit items on sale.

"We are coming to the time of year when there will be a lot of fake perfumes and pre-recorded videos and audio cassettes being offered for sale as well.

"Therefore, before making a purchase, people should examine the item carefully and make a judgement."

Yorkshire Cable customer hits out in phone row

Furious Graham Kimberley claims he is stuck with a Yorkshire Cable phone even though he doesn't want it.

He changed to the company's phone and TV system in February, but claims he soon decided his phone bills were too high.

"I called them and said I wanted to go back to BT with the phone and they told me they didn't do single disconnections and if we had one of the services taken out we would have to have both out.

"But I'm quite happy with the TV - I want to stay with Yorkshire Cable for that.

"I think they have got people over a barrel if this is true - they shouldn't be allowed to hold people to ransom."

Yorkshire Cable refused to comment on Mr Kimberley's criticism and "concerns".

A spokesman said the company would not discuss a customer's accounts because of confidentiality.

"We can confirm we are aware of Mr Kimberley's concerns and that we are continuing to discuss these with him.

"Mr Kimberley's concerns have raised a training issue which has since been addressed and we are hopeful we will be able to resolve the matter to Mr Kimberley's satisfaction."

The spokesman was unable to say what the "training issue" was and refused to confirm or deny that the company will not carry out single disconnections.

l Shopping on the Internet is easier than you think, according to a survey by the Consumer Association Which?

Of the 255 surfers questioned, just over a quarter said they had bought items online and more than three quarters said the process of shopping on the Net was much easier than they expected.

The possibility of fraud and the threat to morality were still the main concerns of a wider Internet survey involving 1,017 people.

But 62 per cent of those questioned thought the Net was just as safe as shopping through mail order catalogues.

Mix-up over kitchen units drags on for five months

Fed-up Chan Renardson has been told he will have to wait until next month before he gets doors for his kitchen units which arrived in July.

He paid about £800 for the kitchen from the MFI store in Bradford's Cemetery Road only to find three doors were missing when he unpacked it.

Mr Renardson, of Peel Park, claims he then found another door and two drawers didn't match the rest of the units.

"They have been out four times from MFI with other doors and some have been totally different colours - not even near," he said.

"We went to West Yorkshire Trading Standards who advised us to write to MFI giving them seven days to put it right. The next day they phoned to say they had some more doors and they would come round the next day - but those weren't any good either.

"They have now told us they will get some more on December 4.

"In the meantime we have a kitchen which is only half complete. We are really fed up with it all."

An MFI spokesman said: "We are very sorry that the customer has gone through so much inconvenience and it has taken so long.

"It's a problem which is rare - he has been extremely unlucky and we are sorry about that.

"I will send someone along to take a sample of the correct door so we can send it to the manufacturer and get a perfect match - it will all be rectified before December 4."

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