Over 28,000 dangerous electrical items have been destroyed this month following an operation by Enfield Trading Standards. The massive haul, with a street value of some £232,000 was seized during raids last year at a warehouse full of products destined for UK Christmas shoppers.

The goods, which were imported from China and other non EU countries, were destroyed by means of industrial shredders. They included a wide range of products such as potentially lethal laptop chargers and adapters, PC tablets, Christmas lights, disco lights, shavers, nail drills, UV gel nail dryers, sat navs, walkie talkies and other electrical products.

Issues included dangerous chargers without fuses, unsafe cabling and battery problems, all of which can increase the risk of devices overheating, exploding or catching fire.

The raid was part of a project funded by National Trading Standards aimed at combatting dangerous imports being sold in the UK. Enfield led the operation and deployed 22 trading standards officers from across London. Also present were officers from the Metropolitan Police, HM Revenue & Customs and Immigration enforcement.

Enfield Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Daniel Anderson, said;

“Using fake electrical products can have lethal consequences and they simply aren’t worth the risk. We strongly recommend that you do your research before you purchase electrical products in the confidence that they are safe. The best way to guarantee an item’s legitimacy is to buy directly from official retailers either online or in-store. It really isn’t worth putting your life at risk buying cheap, fake items”