A 'DEL BOY' market trader who was selling potentially dangerous phone chargers as well as counterfeit goods has been spared jail.

Manfred Rogers-Wright was peddling the dodgy gear, which could have caught fire, from his stall in The Old Shambles, Devizes, in the run-up to Christmas 2013.

After hearing the 43-year-old had not been in trouble since his arrest a judge ordered him to do 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.

Poonan Patni, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how trading standards officers first went to the stall on December 7

She said they bought some 'Coco Chanel' perfume and 'Dr Dre' headphones, which they thought were counterfeit, for testing.

A week later, after the samples had been found to be fakes, they returned and seized all of his stock including a large number of mobile phone chargers.

"They did not bear the manufacturers' names or addresses, which led officers to believe they were not safe," she said.

"Ten were submitted for testing: eight of the ten were found to be unsafe.

"The chargers were described as being of poor standard without adequate insulation to prevent electric shock."

She said the live and neutral pins on the plugs were also too small and the distance between them was incorrect, making them dangerous.

Trading standards also found about 45 sets of headphones and bottles of perfume which were also counterfeit.

Miss Patni told the court that the chargers were the more serious matters though the bogus goods carried the longer potential sentence.

She said "The phone chargers will be going into people's homes and would, no doubt, be bought by children and present a risk."

Rogers-Wright, of Weymouth, Dorset, pleaded guilty to 11 trademark matters and four health and safety offences.

Rob Ross, defending, said "This has got all the hallmarks of a Del Boy operation and no more than that. The fact is he was not running a large scale operation.

"It was not a huge scale operation, selling headphones for £15 to £20 and the perfume about £20. You have heard he had about 45 items for sale.

"It is noticeable that the trademark offences are capable of coming to this court but the safety ones aren't but they are the ones that would worry us more.

"Maybe that is something to do with capitalism rules over health and safety any day of the week."

He said he had not been in trouble in almost two years since his arrest and was now trading in other goods.

Passing sentence Recorder Maria Lamb said "Heaven knows what the dangers that are represented to the general public by people doing what you were doing, selling dangerous chargers, can only be imaginable.

"You know it is youngsters who are likely to be buying these things as they are cheaper. You know they are not au fait with safety."