Farmers convicted of selling old TV as new

Retail chain Farmers has been convicted of breaching the Fair Trading Act after a Christchurch store sold a second-hand, repaired television as new.

In a decision released this week, Christchurch District Court Judge Noel Walsh said Farmers store at the Eastgate shopping centre had not made a "reasonable mistake", The Press reported.

"There was no system in place at Farmers Eastgate whereby the Philips television set could have been tracked to find out where it had come from and why it had appeared at the Eastgate store," the decision said.

During a hearing in January, the court was told the store sold the Philips 32-inch flat-screen TV to Christchurch woman Margaret Fitness for $500 in November 2006.

Documentation in an envelope proved the set had been sold by the retailer's Rangiora branch in December 2005, and had been sent for repair two weeks later.

A date for the sentencing has not been set.

- NZPA