Issue Date:  -  Thursday, 22 March 2001

Burswood Seafoods fined for short-weight sales

Victoria Park fishmonger Burswood Seafoods has been fined $1000 for giving customers short-weight on packaged crayfish tails and jumbo king prawns.

Burswood Seafoods, which was also ordered to pay costs of $263.20, pleaded guilty to 15 charges under the Weights and Measures Act.

Commissioner for Fair Trading Patrick Walker said the charges resulted from a routine inspection of packaged seafood at the firm’s premises in June last year, by Ministry of Fair Trading inspectors.

"Calculated on the packages checked during that single inspection, consumers were collectively being charged nearly $8 more than they should have been," said Mr Walker.

"Individually, the over-charging may be considered by some to be minor, but the cumulative loss to consumers over a period of time can be significant," Mr Walker said.

"The bigger issue of course is that consumers don’t expect to be short-changed when they buy goods by weight or volume," Mr Walker said.

Mr Walker said the Ministry would continue to conduct random checks of scales and packaged items at retail outlets, as well as follow up on specific consumer complaints.

Burswood Seafoods pleaded guilty to the charges.