THEY used to be a cheap joke on Continental holidays: fake sunglasses called Bay Rans or imitation Rolex watches that almost became de rigueur jewellery during the Eighties. But counterfeit products are becoming increasingly less funny these days and not only for manufacturers of the genuine articles.

Yesterday we reported how a North Yorkshire woman made £400,000 by selling pretend Mulberry handbags, which is bad enough. Now we learn that the county’s Trading Standards investigators have seized thousands of pounds worth of fake cosmetics bound for Britain from China and the Far East.

One of the team even tells us she knows for sure that some of these products are unsafe. It’s one thing to rip off people with dodgy goods, but quite another to risk someone’s health for the sake of a quick buck.

This is nothing new of course; the internet is riddled with bogus pharmaceuticals and remember all the brouhaha about scam Viagra when the drug was first released?

But still, it seems, many are not prepared to learn.

We can understand someone being tempted to risk parting with their cash on what to all intents and purposes looks like a designer label, but to gamble with your health is rather more serious.

When the horse meat scandal broke all hell was let loose. Surely fake cosmetics and drugs are every bit as dangerous.