A MAN found selling fake hair straighteners has been ordered to pay thousands of pounds by magistrates.
Oxfordshire Trading Standards pounced on Michael Williams, after an Abingdon woman reported buying a defective pair of GHD IV Pure White tongs from his website cguklondon.co.uk.
The item would not turn on properly and the plug went up in sparks, Trading Standards said.
The ceramic coating on a replacement pair then started to come away, but the woman was unable to contact 27-year-old Williams.
Prosecutor Anu Prashar said: “Michael Williams was making a staggering 100 per-cent profit on the hair straighteners. Records show he had purchased each set for around £40 from China, and sold them on for around £80.”
Williams sold more than 250 pairs of straighteners, paid for via PayPal over six-months, between November 2008 and April 2009, netting him £24,000.
Williams, from Merton, London, admitted two charges under the Trade Marks Act at Oxford Magistrates’ Court last Friday, and was fined £1,000 and £4,000 costs.
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