From time to time the subject of PAT testing is discussed on this forum, I would like to draw attention to the problem of dangerous counterfeit plugs and power leads. Counterfeit plugs are often distinguished by having partially sleeved earth pins in clear contravention of BS 1363, that means that they cannot be legally sold (The Plugs & Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations (1994)). Despite that they are freely available from (amongst others) many ebay sellers, and even Amazon! Some of the counterfeits also have counterfeit fuses fitted, others have no fuses whatsoever! If you rely on visual checks for plugs (as many have commented in these forums) then you must ensure that the person doing the checking is equipped to recognise counterfeit plugs. Even trained PAT testers have been initially puzzled when they come across leads which fail on their PAT tester (because of earth pin sleeving). For further information see http://www.bs1363.org.uk This includes samples of ebay and amazon sales listings, and links to reports from PAT testers who have come across these. The safety of BS 1363 sockets and plugs is under threat from a variety of sources; it is time that the government took stronger action to counter this.

Are you saying that the sellers named in the article are not reputable suppliers?

Thanks to socket man for bringing that to our attention. It does add some weight to the examination, inspection and testing of kit prior to bringing it into use, but this is the sort of thing that might be missed. Ron makes a couple of valid points though. Although I’m sure that the majority of sellers on e bay are legitimate, but it is also something of a haven for the selling of illegal/’dodgy’ (Sodium Chlorate weed killer was on there last night, sold from USA, sent from Turkey!) and counterfeit goods. I believe that that is a matter of record and I currently have an open dispute on the resolution centre as I bought, or more accurately, was sold a counterfeit product on e bay. Of course for their part e bay do respond to this pretty robustly, as and when they become aware. I consider that counterfeit to be something that is masquerading as a branded product, so I take Ron’s point., this stuff is in the main probably just doesn’t comply with the standard even though it purports to, so I agree that buying from a ‘reputable’ supplier is the more responsible (but not necessarily foolproof) route to take. The selling of counterfeit goods though is often a very sophisticated operation and counterfeit goods have and continue to infiltrate legitimate supply chains, in many areas including both aircraft spares and prescription drugs.

Hello Socketman, Is there evidence of this sort of stuff getting into the domestic market? I would imagine that would be of concern to the fire brigade if dodgy electricals are turning up in homes. Thanks for publicising this.

What they are counterfeiting is the approval marks, usually you will find that it is the ASTA mark that is counterfeited, in the case of the fuseless plug shown in 9 of the ebay listings on the website it is a CE mark, but as a CE mark is specifically not applicable to UK plugs then it is doubly wrong. I have, and await with interest the result, but I know that they are operating in very reduced circumstances as a result of severe budget cuts. I would like to quote a comment which someone made to a similar post on an electrical forum: "I took an example of a blatently dangerous lead to trading standards and explained from where I had purchased it. Months later they wrote to me advising that the lead was CE marked and therefore OK, and that if I needed "guidance on the safe selection and use of this or any other electrical equipment, that I should seek advice from an experienced electrician" (which the commenter was!) " The really shameful thing about that story is that a power lead bearing a CE marked UK plug is in itself an indication that it is counterfeit. "As the devices regulated by Part I (of the Plugs and Sockets Regulations) are outside of the scope of Community Directives and the Regulations are national in origin in support of the General Product Safety Directive, the CE Marking is not to be used. Its use may constitute an offence under section 1 of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968." Clearly that Trading Standards department was not fit for purpose!

Sorry to hear of your negative Trading Standards experience there Socketman. Indeed, times may be hard. Whereas not all LAs will have the range of in-house expertise, the system used to be that they would send suspect items to authorised Test Houses (BSI etc.) for formal report and necessary action via the "home" authority thereafter. As you describe your experience, I would suggest writing back to the Council (Chief Executive) by way of complaint - this is a serious safety issue after all, and they are the Enforcement Authority here! CE Marking is applicable to cables I think. If the CE mark happens to be on the plug part of the assembly, then (all other things being equal) that would be OK?

Socketman: I misread one of your posts. Apologies.

Socketman said: "As the 2007 guidance notes for the Plugs and Sockets Regulations state: "As the devices regulated by Part I are outside of the scope of Community Directives and the Regulations are national in origin in support of the General Product Safety Directive, the CE Marking is not to be used. Its use may constitute an offence under section 1 of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968." (Page 10, http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file38628.pdf )" I understand that Part 1 of the Regulations is applicable specifically to discrete plugs, sockets and fuseholders, and therefore the disapplication of CE marking is limited to those discrete items. A cable assembly therefore may be CE marked?

Not wishing to hijack this post..... but just caught end of a BBC1 programme "Fake Britain". Seems that in N Ireland there has been some investigation into non-OEM brake pads, specifically VW. Tests were conducted. Stopping distances wre increased but more worryingly was that on a run of 3 consecutive stopping tests the braking distance for the third test - when pads were hot I assume - increased from 40.9ms to 55 ms. Now that is worrying. Phil

Surely a properly functioning society depends on those who have understanding and expertise acting to help those who may not? "Caveat Emptor" is good advice, but actually not very helpful advice to the gullible, and gullibility has not yet been made illegal. While many of us are healthily suspect of ebay bargains, that is not necessarily true of Amazon, who also offer power leads using illustrations of illegal plugs, here are three such: http://www.amazon.co.uk/...loverleaf/dp/B005EL9Z6K/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/...er-Figure/dp/B005EL9YY8/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/...r-D-Shape/dp/B005EL9YKM/ A good move towards a proper solution would be to prohibit companies such as Amazon and ebay from listing offers of such regulated articles from non-UK suppliers, it is not of course the whole solution, but at least there is a method by which TS can tackle UK based commercial criminals. It is interesting to note that the Amazon listings are for a supplier based in Ireland (I have notified the appropriate Irish authorities about that, they have similar plugs and sockets regulations to our own.)

Would that I could Ron, but Amazon have blocked me from commenting, as a result of posting comments warning people of the risks associated with using socket covers. They have also removed a good number of other people's negative comments on that subject.

(( Brief diversion on socket covers - I would like to remind readers that there is not one single socket cover which meets the dimensional requirements of BS 1363, they can certainly damage sockets as well as increase risks! )) Please forgive that, back to the topic: I have been looking closely at one of the counterfeit plugs fitted with the counterfeit BS 1362 fuses (similar to the one shown at www.bs1363.org.uk ). Although the fuse does have continuity, it turns out that the plug wiring bypasses the fuseholder, so it is actually another version of an unfused plug. Digging deeper finds more issues!

Have a look at www.beama.org.uk/en/news/index.cfm/counterfeit

We are making some progress, with the help of my local Trading Standards department. All but two of the illegal listings on ebay which were originally published at www.bs1363.org.uk have been deleted! A further batch has now been published on the site (the deleted items remain there for reference). Amazon continues to fail to respond to my messages, and has also not acted on the Trading Standards approach! A further batch of Amazon listed products has now been posted on www.bs1363.org.uk , these are laptop chargers for which the power cord is shown as having sleeved earth pins. Some of these have comments posted on their site indicating power lead problems. Of course, not all counterfeit plugs will have sleeved earth pins, but it is the most obvious identifier. In the absence of proper measures by government I urge you to contribute to the effort.