Owners of a Southall jewellery shop were fined more than £30,000 after trading standards officers seized gold items falsely being sold as 22 carat.
Abdul Rashid Bhatti and his two sons, Suhail Rashid Bhatti and Assim Bhatti, partners of Pearl Jewellers in King Street, were slapped with a £33,581 financial penalty after pleading guilty to 14 Hallmarking Act offences and 13 under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.
The trio were prosecuted by Ealing Council after trading standard enforcement officers discovered unhallmarked gold jewellery during an inspection at their shop.
Hallmarks are marks applied to precious metals to indicate the amount of pure metal in the piece of jewellery.
Two inspections were carried out on Pearl Jewellers on March 9 and July 27 2017 by Ealing trading standards enforcement officers.
Gold jewellery items inspected and seized by the officers were being described as '22 carat gold', but, on further examination by the London Assay Office, the results showed that some gold jewellery items seized did not contain at least 916.6 parts per thousand gold, as required to be described as '22 carat'.
What else is going on in Ealing?
Trading standards officers have been cracking down on jewellers who sell unhallmarked and counterfeit jewellery over the past 18 months. This is the sixth successful prosecution that has been brought by the council in the last 18 months.
Councillor Jasbir Anand, cabinet member for business and community services, said: "The work that our trading standards team has been doing to crack down on hallmarking and fraud has been second to none.
"Not only does this prosecution serve as a warning to any jewellers out there selling unhallmarked merchandise, it raises awareness amongst the public that unhallmarked products are being sold and customers should always look for visual confirmation before purchasing.
"The British Hallmarking Council recognised Ealing Council’s trading standard team’s outstanding enforcement work and their dedication in protecting the public at an Annual CTSI Conference awards ceremony in Harrogate in June 2017 where they were presented with a solid silver plate - clearly hallmarked."
Suspected trading standards breaches should be reported to the Citizens Advice Service on 03454 040 506 or by visiting their website .
