Car Boot Sales – Cheap As Chips But Is It Safe Or Legal?

COUNTY councillors are conducting an investigation into the way car boot sales across the county are regulated. They want to find out if people who shop at car boots sales are being protected from rogue traders and are not buying fakes or other products that may be stolen or substandard.
Cllr. Colin Lamont, who is leading the Review on behalf of the Council?s Community Safety Scrutiny Committee, said: “Thousands of people regularly flood to car boot sales every weekend in search of a bargain. Yet few people will be aware that this pleasant pastime is being increasingly abused by a few people profiting from the sale of fake and substandard goods.
“Markets, in one form or another, have existed for millennia and are a vital cornerstone of trade. Everybody knows that car boot sales are an excellent way of recycling unwanted goods but we do need to know that the products that are for sale at them are not being misadvertised or in any other way fraudulently sold.
“We are concerned that these great events are sometimes tainted by a few rogue traders masquerading as private individuals, with a view to escaping tax, VAT and their legal and moral obligations to their customers, and that some goods for sale at such events and other markets may be counterfeit, substandard or even stolen.
“Some of our constituents, for example, have complained that tools or ornaments stolen from gardens and garden sheds may be being sold at local fares and car boot sales.”
He continued: “It is important that the rules that apply to shops are also seen to apply to other places where lots of goods are bought and sold, so that consumers are protected wherever they shop and legitimate traders are not facing unfair competition.
“We want consumers to be able to enjoy their favourite sales, confident that the goods they buy are safe, legitimate and work.”

The council insists that the Councillors looking into this subject are keeping an open mind and want to know what local residents think about these ideas.

If you have any views on this matter; any experiences ? good or bad ? of shopping at car boot sales and other occasional fares, the Scrutiny team would like to hear from you. They can be contacted by phoning 01865 815029 or emailing scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk