Short weighted grapes
Thursday 7 August 2008
A greengrocers shop in Bounds Green has been found guilty of selling customers short when buying fruit.
Last week Trading Standards prosecuted the two owners of the greengrocer after test purchasers found they were charged for more fruit than they had actually bought.
On 21 July Javid Ebrahim who trades as Pricecutter at 6 Queens Parade, Brownlow Road N11 was sentenced by Haringey Magistrates Court for three offences of selling shortweight fruit, to which he had pleaded guilty by post. He was fined £200 on each charge and ordered to pay £600 towards prosecution costs.
A Haringey Council spokesperson said: "When we buy groceries we trust the vendor.This kind of activity is unacceptable and I want to congratulate the trading standards and the public who alerted us to this."
Javid's brother Elias had previously pleaded guilty to three similar offences, and three other offences of not properly pricing his goods, and was fined £75 on each charge and £389 costs. This represents a total of over £2,000 in fines and costs.
The court heard that despite advice from Trading Standards and a previous prosecution for failing to display prices, the public were still complaining about short weight.
Trading Standards Officers made 3 test purchases and were overcharged each time. In the worst case they were charged £3 for a bunch of grapes which should have cost £2-50. (That represents a 20% overcharge.) Matters were not helped by the fact that the scales weighed in kilogrammes, the few prices which were on display were in pounds, and the staff and owners seemed to have no proper idea about how many pounds there were in a kilogramme.
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