TRADING Standards chiefs today warned they would not tolerate counterfeit good being sold after a man was prosecuted for selling fake CDs.

Wayne Kenneth Grunshaw, of Sunny Bank Road, Blackburn, was fined £250 and ordered to pay £225 towards costs after pleading guilty to seven offences under the Trades Description Act.

In October last year officials from Blackburn with Darwen Council's Trading Standard Office received a complaint regarding the sale of counterfeit music and computer games at the Sunday car boot sale on the Blackburn Market car park.

Officers visited the sale and bought a PlayStation game that later discovered to be counterfeit. The court heard that the discs had been sent to Sony and Microsoft who confirmed that all were fakes.

On October 29, 2000, Trading Standards Officers again visited the car boot sale and seized a further 175 counterfeit CDs from Grunshaw's stall and vehicle.

These included copies of games for the PlayStation console, Microsoft programs for computers and various music CDs.

The seizure was one of several made by the Trading Standards Service over recent months. Investigations are continuing into a seizure of 80 counterfeit CDs from the same car boot sale at the weekend.

Daniel King, defending, said Grunshaw, 36, had visited various car boot sales and on occasions had bought discs. He said: "He knew these were not the genuine article but he was unclear as to the criminality of it.

"He thinks that he only made about £100 selling these discs and clearly he is not on the same scale as Microsoft." Councillor Maureen Bateson said today: "The council will not tolerate counterfeit goods being sold or manufactured within the borough.

"People must be aware that in buying these discs they are not getting a bargain; they are buying goods that very often do not work, and they will not get any back-up support from the legitimate manufacturer."

"It is often the more vulnerable members of our society who are tempted into buying these goods and I urge people to think twice before buying these items and consider whether they can afford to spend money on goods that may not work, and for which they will be unable to get a refund."

Chief Trading Standards Officer Chris Allen added, "The Trading Standards service takes allegations of counterfeiting very seriously and will investigate any complaints received.

"We also want to get the message to people that it is not just large multi-national companies who suffer from counterfeiting. There are many examples of local traders whose businesses have suffered due to the trade in these illegal goods."

Recent studies have shown that an estimated nine per cent of world trade is in counterfeit goods.

It is also estimated that 100,000 jobs per year are lost in the EU as a direct result of product counterfeiting.