THE owner of a Great Yarmouth seaside shop which allegedly sold shoddy and cheap goods by claiming they were ex-catalogue items is to appear at crown court charged with 11 fraud and trading standards offences.

THE owner of a Great Yarmouth seaside shop which allegedly sold shoddy and cheap goods by claiming they were ex-catalogue items is to appear at crown court charged with 11 fraud and trading standards offences.

Eliot Gavan is alleged to have enticed customers with knockdown prices on well known high street electrical goods, including mobile phones and DVD players, and then sold them near worthless items instead at the Catalogue Clearance Agents in Regent Road.

It is also claimed that Gavan, 33, from Kent, and his staff acted aggressively towards customers as part of a hard sell auction type operation during the last two summers.

Yesterday Gavan told Yarmouth magistrates that he would be pleading not guilty to the 11 counts of fraud and trademark breaches and one charge of failing to have proper business documentation.

He had earlier been charged with two counts of participating in a fraudulent business, three offences of offering goods for sale at highly competitive prices to make a financial gain and three counts of using goods with a false trademark.

The Norfolk County Council trading standards prosecution also alleges that Gavan twice engaged in commercial practice which were misleading and one charge of engaging in a commercial practice which was aggressive.

Gavan appeared at Yarmouth Magistrates' Court yesterday where he confirmed that he would plead not guilty when his case will be heard at Norwich Crown Court later in the year.

He was granted unconditional bail until May 5 for his committal hearing to the crown court.