The trading standards team has joined forces with the operators of the Sunday market in Nine Elms to combat the traders who peddle fake and counterfeit goods to consumers.
The council has teamed up with Geraud New Covent Garden, which manages the New Covent Garden Sunday market, to sign a landmark agreement designed to drive away traders who sell illicit and pirated goods.
It is the first time a local authority and a privately run market have signed up to the new Real Deal campaign – a nationwide anti-piracy agreement.
Thousands of pirated items, including fake DVDs, computer games, perfumes, designer clothes and handbags, have been seized by trading standards officers in recent months.
Councillor Sarah McDermott, the council’s spokesman on consumer protection, said: “People may think they are getting a cut-price bargain on a trendy designer label but counterfeit clothes are often so badly made that they fall apart very quickly.
“And pirated CDs and DVDs are often of such a poor quality that they are simply impossible to watch or listen to.
“The other thing people should bear in mind if they are tempted by these bargains is that many of the people involved in the manufacture of these fakes have links to organised criminal gangs who use the profits they generate to finance people smuggling, fraud, drugs and prostitution.”
Anyone with concerns about fake and counterfeit items being sold in Wandsworth should contact the council’s trading standards team on 020 8871 7720 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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