A COMPANY convicted of selling fake designer goods in two Bolton clothes shops will have to pay its £20,000 fine after an appeal against the sentence failed.

Pricewise Retail Inc Ltd, which has stores in Exchange Street and Acresfield Mall in Crompton Place, was convicted after an investigation uncovered thousands of pounds worth of counterfeit designer labels being sold.

But the company's counterfeiting was only spotted when a work experience pupil was shown around one of their stores by a trading standards officer.

The pupil spotted a Timberland polo shirt being sold for £10 when the normal price was £35. The officer bought the shirt on the spot and had it examined. It turned out that the shirt was fake and an investigation was launched.

Yesterday the company' appeal against sentence was thrown out by a judge sitting with two magistrates at Bolton Crown Court.

The company, trading as Eurojeans and Pricewise in Bolton, had been fined £4,000 on each of five specimen charges of selling counterfeit goods contrary to the Trademarks Act. Gary Woodall, prosecuting on behalf of Bolton Council's Trading Standards Department, said polo shirts, sweatshirts and shirts bearing the Calvin Klein and Levi-Strauss designer labels had been seized.

The goods had been examined by the trademark owners and found to be counterfeit and the company admitted not properly checking if the serial numbers were authentic.

Louise Waite, defending, said the company, based in the Preston area, accepted that it had not made proper checks on the authenticity of stock it was buying from reputable suppliers.

Since the incident the directors had gone through all the stock and destroyed everything that was found to be counterfeit.

Pricewise had now introduced stricter checking procedures on trade mark authenticity. A new financial controller had been put in place responsible for the proper training of all shop managers.

Recorder Richard Brittain rejected the appeal saying the Appeal Court had made plain that deterrent sentences in such cases should be imposed.

He said the company had been trading for 15 years and had more than enough time to gets its house in order and that the magistrates had imposed a perfectly proper sentence. A COMPANY convicted of selling fake designer goods in two Bolton clothes shops faces a bill for £20,000 after an appeal against the fine failed.

The company had its own trademarks and understood the reasons for protecting trademarks by other companies. She said the company accepted it had not checked properly but that it had acted in good faith and had co-operated with Trading Standards officials. and one person was now responsible for checking garments.