Manchester trader fined over fake goods made with cadmium and lead

Fake Dior, Disney, Chanel and Hello Kitty items were seized from Handsn UK

A trader who sold jewellery made with harmful heavy metals, some of which was found to contain 800 times more than the safe limit, has been fined.

Fake Dior, Disney, Chanel and Hello Kitty items were seized from Handsn UK in Derby Street, Manchester in 2019.

Tests found the goods had dangerously high levels of cadmium and lead, the city's trading standards team said.

Business owner Ting Li told a court on Thursday she relied on her suppliers to monitor safety compliance.

Trading standards visited the premises in November and December 2019, taking 262 items to be tested that they believed were unsafe or fake.

The fake items were found to have dangerously high levels of heavy metals

Tests found a pair of earrings which contained more than the maximum prescribed limit of lead and a necklace, which had more than 800 times the amount of cadmium.

A second necklace tested contained nearly 160 times the prescribed amount of cadmium and a third had more than 170 times the safe level of lead.

Manchester City Council said Handsn UK Ltd and Li appeared at the city's magistrates court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to six registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals regulation offences and five trademark offences.

The company was fined £2,000 and Li was given a 12 month community order for 200 hours of unpaid work.

Speaking afterwards, councillor Rabnawaz Akbar said the case showed "what vital work our officers in trading standards do every day".

"Their efforts ensure that potentially harmful products are kept off our streets and help set an example for any other unscrupulous trader thinking of doing the same," he added.

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