TRADING standards officers seized fake and dangerous Pokemon merchandise from a market stall, a court was told.

The partners in Kang's Electrical, Mr Shangara Sing and Mrs Sharanjit Kang, pleaded guilty to four offences under the trademark regulations and Mrs Kang, who was in charge of the Blackburn Market stall at the time, admitted three toy safety offences.

The partnership was fined £1,000 by Blackburn magistrates and Kang £750 and there was a joint costs order of £700. They were given 28 days to pay in full.

Kevin James, prosecuting on behalf of Blackburn with Darwen Trading Standards Office, said the items seized had been in the style of Pikachu, part of the Pokemon series, all of which is trademarked by the Nintendo Corporation. Among the items seized were 67 digital watches, eight necklaces, 18 rubber key rings, 49 badges and 89 plastic key rings.

"The trading standards officer was able to say from her own

knowledge that these were clearly counterfeit," said Mr James. "None of them contained the required information about the manufacturer or distributor. One of the regulations is that they carry the details of who can be contacted, which these items did not, and there was no CE mark.

"She had reason to believe the wrist watches would present a choking hazard in the shape of the cover to go over the face. This was confirmed when the items were submitted for analysis."

He said Mrs Kang had produced an invoice which showed all the items had come from a supplier in Manchester. "The trading standards officers accepted that Mrs Kang had not suspected the item to be counterfeit," he added.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said the partnership had been operating for ten years. "They did not set out deliberately to breach the law," he said. "They had previously bought legitimate Pokemon merchandise off this wholesaler and had no reason to believe these were any different."