A Chinese student has been jailed for selling "poisonous" jewellery after he was caught with £3m worth of fake goods containing dangerously high levels of nickel.
Zhanhong Zheng was arrested following an investigation by trading standards officers last year and was sentenced this month to 18 months in prison. Officers believe the student, who came to the UK from China in 2003, had been running his illegal business for more than two years.
The 25-year-old from Battersea was found flogging fake jewellery, pens, sunglasses and handbags, with the former containing levels of nickel which were up to 28 times higher than health and safety laws allow. He claimed the "designer" goods were genuine brands from Chanel, Rolex and Dior.
Zheng pleaded guilty at Kingston Crown Court to 15 counts of unauthorised use of a trade mark and one count of placing jewellery exceeding the nickel limit on the market. More than 9,000 counterfeit goods worth in excess of £3m were seized in the raid, after being stored and distributed from a warehouse in Battersea.
Councillor for Wandsworth Jonathan Cook, also a community safety spokesperson, told the Wandsworth Guardian the seizure was "one of the largest" carried out by standards officers in the UK.