Shoppers are being urged to be on the alert for rogue traders.

Brighton and Hove's Trading Standards team has issued a warning about unscrupulous traders who are travelling to the city to try to sell counterfeit DVDs and CDs.

The team believe the traders are now targeting industrial estates on the outskirts of the city after a successful clampdown to stop makeshift stalls being set up in city centre streets.

John Peerless, head of Trading Standards, said: "We have received several reports of people turning up on industrial estates in different parts of the city, calling at business premises trying to sell counterfeit DVDs and CDs to workers."

The rogue traders are believed to arrive in the city from London by train with bags full of DVDs and CDs. After calling at an industrial estate, they are likely to hop back on the train and visit another town further along the line.

Mr Peerless said: "Our advice to shoppers is simple: don't buy from someone who approaches you in the street or turns up at your place of work trying to flog you something.

"You have no idea what you are getting, what quality the CD or DVD is or, indeed, whether there is anything on it at all. And you have absolutely no comeback.

"If you are offered a new film that is not officially released on DVD, it has probably been filmed on someone's camera phone in the cinema and chances are you'll see the people in front getting up and down to go and buy popcorn.

"It's also worth bearing in mind that counterfeiting is a big business. Counterfeiting in itself is a crime and it is invariably linked with other crime as well - consumers can make a difference by not buying these goods."

Tony Mernagh, chief executive of Brighton City Centre Business Forum, said: "Counterfeit goods are never the bargain they seem.

"By purchasing from a reputable store, you know exactly what you are buying, you get good service and you have full consumer rights."

Last year, thousands of DVDs and CDs were seized by Trading Standards staff in Brighton and Hove, along with a range of other counterfeit goods.

All counterfeit goods seized are recycled wherever possible once fake trademarks have been removed. Many goods, for example luggage and clothing, are donated to local charities.

Monday, March 27, 2006