ROGUE traders have been selling fake perfume laced with urine in Manchester.
The shocking discovery comes in the wake of a Manchester Evening News investigation into the shady practices of hawkers working in Market Street under a loophole in the law.
Council officials have discovered that counterfeit perfume - like the one pictured right - was causing skin reactions under test conditions because "inferior or unsuitable ingredients" including urine were being used.
Town hall chiefs will now go to Parliament to demand a special law allowing them to boot rogue street traders out of the city for good.
The M.E.N. revealed in July the scale of the problem, with up to 20 hawkers working highly lucrative pitches on Market Street and outside the Manchester Evening News Arena.
Bazaar
We told how one perfume seller was using "bogus" customers to drum up business before he fled when we confronted him with our findings.
When we returned days later with a council-led éhit squadé, Pat Karney é a councillor with special responsibility for the city centre é described the scene as like a éMoroccan bazaaré.
Now the council has voted to ask Parliament for a new Act, which would apply only to Manchester, closing a loophole that allows people to use é12.50 pedlarés licences to trade on the streets. Pedlars are supposed to move from city to city é but council CCTV operators have been spending huge amounts of time gathering evidence that most pedlars flout the law by simply staying in one place.
The new Act, which is due to be presented to the House of Commons next month, would mean pedlars could only operate door-to-door and it would give officials the power to seize goods from those who did not comply.
Problems
The councilés Neil Swannick said: éIllegal pedlars cause real problems on the streets of Manchester, selling often sub-standard goods which put members of the public at risk, undermining legitimate traders and causing obstructions.
éWe are determined to protect the quality of the city centre and of the goods which customers buy, and to do that we need extra powers.é
Town hall chiefs are exercising a right to approach Parliament for élocation specificé laws if they feel their powers are not strong enough to tackle particular issues. Newcastle, Westminster and Liverpool are among seven councils who have already got similar local acts passed to tackle street traders.
The move was so successful in Medway, in the south east, that neighbouring Maidstone sought and got a similar law because the problem simply migrated over the border.
James Allen, director of events at the M.E.N. Arena, said pedlars often behaved éin a threatening and intimidating wayé and sold sub-standard goods.
Coun Karney said: éPeople will rightly be horrified to hear of this. It is precisely for this kind of reason that we are taking action. éWe will do what we need to do to protect the people of Manchester and clean these rogues from our streets.é
HAVE you bought any of the illegal hawkers' goods on Market Street? Have your say.
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This lot is taking the p a bit too far .
depends whos it was i guess !
Is this selling the P, instead of taking the P.
I suppose you could say it was genuine Eau De Toilet
The age old saying "you get what you pay for" never rings truer. I have been accosted on market street and other areas many times by these people peddling their wares and in my view anyone who thinks they are getting a bargain is sadly deluded. Most of the stuff being sold is utter rubbish and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Then they all deserve to be boycotted.
so if this law is passed, these 'threatening and intimidating' traders will only be allowed to trade 'door-to-door'? does that mean we can look forward to aggressive tat-merchants turning up on our doorsteps?
Someone is taking the P
kind of brings a new meaning to the phrase 'smells like cats p' urgh so glad i never bought any
Heard it all now.
Someone is taking the P
Well personally i wouldn't buy perfume from a street trader.
It all looks a bit wee dodgy if you ask me.
Well I bought a bottle and now women are flocking around me. Don't knock it til you've tried it. Mmmmmmm.
In my experience as a pedlar I have found that
most councils take the
attitude that all peddlers
are illegal, weather they
have certificates or not
A peddlers certificate issued under the authority 1871 pedlars act gives that right to
any pedlar to act as a
pedlar in any street
city of westminster act
1999 new legislation
came into effect on the
26th may 1999
the effect of this new
act was that a person
could only act as a
pedlar by means of visits from house to
house
prior to this act I myself
worked as a pedlar in the city of westminster
and was arrested many
times for the same
offence of street trading
without a licence
and was never found
guilty
Each time I went to
work I found myself
challenging the
authorities being the
police and council
I became a thorn in the
side of the police and
council who could not
except the courts
findings always in my
faver
plans were being made
to by police and council
to take pedlars and
fly pitchers to court as
a means to deal with
unlicensed street traders
fair enough if you did
not have a licence I had
one though
To back my claims
against unlawful
harassment by local
council and police which
had acted unlawful and
corruptly
video evidence
in order to capture the
wrongful antics of bully
boy council and the
police I had and used
a pin hole camera to
exspose them to
futher damage their
reputation for fair play
disscreetly I had been
videoing for a about
two years
after wining a case
at horseferry road
magistrates court I
went to collect my
goods that had been
seized by the council
deffamatory comments
when I complaind about
continuing harassment
by the council in bring
all these unlawful
charges against me
the reply was how
many times have you
been court I replyd
I think its about forty
odd times now he replyd come back to
me when its more like
one hundred times
then we might listen
then he said looking
at some papers I had
in my hand are mr Barka meaning my
solicitor he only works
for pimps and prostitutes
I reported this fact to
my solicitor who was
concerned at the comments made by this
council officer
when my solicitor
asked why he utterd
these words he said
he never said any such
thing and denide the
words hade ever been spoken after showing
my video the council
paid my solicitor
four thousand pounds
damages in full and final
settelment
to date I have been
arested for street trading 87 times and found guilty once but
won on appeal at high
court that case cost
the tax payers ¿¿7000
with an average cost
per case ¿¿1000 to ¿¿12oo per case thats
about ¿¿100 000 spent
just to put one pedlar
out of work
all videos have been
kept in a safe place for
exanination
xmas without street
traders wont be like
xmas it sounds boring