An Ellesmere Port man who sold fake Pandora charms online has been given a 12 month jail sentence.

Cheshire West and Chester Trading Standards brought the case against Tony McKeating, 45, following an investigation into the sale of counterfeit Pandora jewellery being sold on an online auction site.

Scrap metal dealer McKeating, of Arthur Avenue, Ellesmere Port, was identified as part of CWaC's Trading Standards E-Crime project which aims to tackle counterfeit and unsafe goods being sold online via auction sites such as eBay, Gum Tree, Facebook and others.

He was found guilty of one count of fraudulent trading between October 23, 2015 and November 2, 2016, along with one trade mark offence.

A court heard how on November 2, 2016, Trading Standards and Cheshire police officers executed an entry warrant at his address and recovered a large quantity of Pandora gift wrapping, including boxes and gift bags.

A total of 342 Pandora charms were also seized.

The calculated loss to Pandora if every charm advertised on the internet had been sold was in the region of £96,000.

Summing up, the judge commented on the compelling evidence that McKeating was trading on the internet and seeking to source fake items from across the world.

Pandora stood to lose their reputation for each and every item sold fraudulently and in this case there was a serious offence of dishonesty and taking advantage of the owner of the trade mark.

Taking account of McKeating’s guilty plea before trial, he was sentenced to 12 months for each offence to run concurrently, half of the time to be spent in custody and the remaining half on licence.

McKeating was ordered to pay a £3,000 contribution towards the costs of the prosecution.

Councillor Karen Shore, CWaC's cabinet member for environment,said: “Please think twice about supporting this kind of activity. Buying counterfeit goods on-line may appear to be an attractive and cheap alternative but they are, by their very nature, inferior products and are often unsafe.

“We will take action against anyone found selling counterfeit products in our borough. Counterfeiting is an illegal activity which affects the livelihoods of legitimate and hardworking businesses.”