Trading Standards

Seddon's house of cards was about to collapse.

A Trading Standards investigation exposed his company as a sham, and in March 2000, the 33-year-old was sentenced to one year in prison for fraud.

The wheels have come off Stephen Seddon's con trick.

The great edifice that has been created is crumbling in front of his eyes.

Stand it wisely.

There was also someone in the crowd from Trading Standards.

And, you know, they get a rough ride, don't they? We never think there's enough of them.

And we know they're under-resourced.

But, you know, she maintained that whilst that story goes out, that they can't come and visit all the rogue traders, etc., they said that, you know, be under no illusion, they absolutely see it as a top part of their agenda to... to crack down on these guys so it feels good to hear it um we just need to see action though we just need to see action

i think the frustration though there is when you talk about trading standards is i remember when we went to the safe and responsible uh conference last year um and was it this year i don't know um and it talked about um had trading standards come up on stage they just don't have the legislation behind them so that's where that's where really the government really needs to change empower the trading standards to be able to actually enforce and that would be where the starting point is for everything you know it's not it's never going to be the police is it because they're definitely under-resourced um so yeah that's where change

actually needs to happen a lot of the problems are obviously around tobacco illicit vaping underage sales and yet you know Sarah being here you know on the alcohol side it seems like it's something that we've done really well with over the years you don't you don't hear of that much of the duty fraud stuff that's being caught in stores and etc so i i to swing it around to that end you know we've got we've got things in place with our repo systems to make sure that we do the the date uh sorry the the age checks etc verification um and it's interesting to see that alcohol has done something that's had some sort of success and we're yet to see in in tobacco and and and this other stuff you know i'm vaping

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In Petersfield's local news, a Halloween scam near Petersfield has been rumbled by trading standards officers.

Stanley has the sporting results from across the Petersphere.

Winton House Garden has become a site for successful volunteer drive.

Its name sounds similar to a genuine event planned there.

But the fraudulent event does not exist and is part of a ticketing scam.

Hampshire Trading Standards officers say no such event has been authorised by Hampshire County Council or the park.

They urge us all not to buy tickets and to exercise caution when seeing adverts posted on social media.

And finally, a pub in Scotland could face criminal action after vodka being sold as Smirnoff turned out not to be Smirnoff at all.

Trading Standards in North Ayrshire tested three samples of vodka from licensed premises earlier this year, and all three were found to be non-genuine, with officials describing the drinks as substituted vodka.

Two samples came from the Gulab restaurant and bar in Irvine, while the identity of a second pub is being kept secret while an investigation continues.

Two license reviews have been requested and the unnamed pub could still face criminal proceedings.

The great balloon race at Shuttleworth in Bedfordshire.

Faced investigations by Trading Standards after organisers failed to submit safety paperwork, leading to event cancellations and unsolved ticket refunds.

The issue postponed from June to September before being completely pulled by the venue.

Safety concern.

There's a cosmetic portal that people don't understand.

You have to upload everything, each individual pigment and ingredient, each back label, front label, uh, a picture of the product, a notification to trading standards.

So much that goes into developing your products, not just sticking and whacking a few colors together and- Yeah ... putting it on the market.

And that's why letting artists like Clemency develop it through someone like me, I'm giving back to Clemency because she- Mm ... definitely made a huge, huge, hu- like, momentous impact to my career because she believed in me, and I wasn't scared of upsetting the face paint world, coming in as the makeup artist who's, have been talentless and this and that.

Do you know, it's 'cause I went for-

... and safely.

Yeah, um, for me into trading standards.

So cosmetics, every, every product in the, in, in the world has a trading standard, whether it's machinery, there's a trading standard specifically for that sector.

As many as half of convenience and vape stores in some parts of the UK have links with organized crime.

A report by Trading Standards also suspects some American candy stores and takeaway places do as well.

And it's become cheaper to rent a home in Britain now than it is to buy.

Rightmove says it's down to a sharp rise in mortgage rates since the war with Iran started.

Yeah.

But you know what? Actually, my grandad, after he left the, the, uh, the, the police, went into Trading Standards, so he probably would've done.

Yeah.

[laughs] Yeah, fair.