Angry electricians in York have hit back following a council sting operation which they fear could lead to honest traders being unfairly branded as "cowboy" operators.

John Riley, of Riley Electronics in Poppleton Road, York, who is worried that a recent operation by trading standards officers to expose "cowboy" repair practices may adversely affect reputable businesses

The electricians say the way underhand methods used by some repairers was exposed could adversely affect reputable businesses.

Trading standards officers at City of York Council found that seven out of nine electricians picked out of Yellow Pages, Evening Press classified columns and the Thomson directory were out to fleece their "customers".

An officer posed as a housewife and repairmen were filmed when they came to work on deliberately "broken" appliances.

The video footage showed the repairmen giving extraordinary explanations for straightforward faults to inflate their charges. For example, one man mended a video by flicking a switch, then charged £35 and claimed he had overhauled the equipment. Warning letters are to be sent to the individuals concerned.

But John Riley, of Riley Electronics in Poppleton Road, who has been working in the city for 15 years, was concerned because none of the traders caught by the sting had been named, adding people might think that established electricians were involved in the same practices.

"I was rather concerned that it ruins the business for reputable people that are not concerned with ripping people off," he said, adding there were very few problem traders in York compared with the reputable ones.

Mr Riley was also worried that people might draw the wrong conclusions from some practices trading standards officers highlighted.

For example, they showed a repairman taking away a video when it could have been fixed on the spot, but Mr Riley said it was often necessary to remove appliances for safety reasons.

Colin Owen-Stanford, director of Wills Brothers (York) Ltd, who are local dealers for Bang and Olufsen, said they always returned any components removed from appliances and gave customers a full list of repairs undertaken.

The council's head of trading standards, Colin Rumford, said its operation followed complaints from the public and the results had surprised officers.

He said: "It's like any isolated sample survey, it may not be indicative of the true picture, but we need to do more work on it."

Linda Burnside, head of advertising and commercial sales with York & County Press, said if a complaint was received about a service provided by an advertiser, the company would ask the advertiser to put it right so that the customer was completely satisfied.

If that did not happen, the company would have no alternative but to stop that advertisement. "It's protecting the customer, our readers and also our advertisers," she said.

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