EAST Lancashire RESIDENTS have been told to be aware of festive fakes sold at their workplaces.

Lancashire County Council Trading Standards Service has launched a crackdown on the sale of counterfeit goods at work in the run up to Christmas.

MORE TOP STORIES:

With support from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the Keeping It Real campaign involves officers acting in partnership with local businesses to provide awareness and guidance so both employers and staff know what to look out for.

It follows a report which identified ‘factories and industrial units’ and ‘other workplaces’ as being in the top eleven counterfeit crime locations.

County council public protection boss Janice Hanson said: “Fake goods are often offered for sale, especially at workplaces in the run up to Christmas.

“The most common fakes are clothes, DVDs, and CDs, perfumes, and cosmetics, software, cigarettes and alcohol.

“These items are normally seen as cheaper alternatives to the genuine branded goods, but are often of inferior quality and sometimes dangerous.”

“Our Trading Standards Service has seized fake vodka that can cause blindness, make-up full of untested and potentially harmful ingredients, and electrical goods that are completely unsafe.

“In the run up to Christmas when everyone’s looking for a bargain and money can be tight, we’re trying to raise awareness of the dangers that can come from counterfeit goods.”

Trading standards officers are providing information to businesses about how to protect their products from being faked, and visiting premises where problems have previously been reported about employees selling counterfeit goods.