DODGY stallholders selling stolen goods or counterfeit gifts have prompted a survey of the county's car boot sales and markets.

The survey by Oxfordshire County Council was sparked by the seizure of £9,000 worth of illicit DVDs and CDs at a car boot sale held at the Kassam Stadium, in Oxford, last month.

The council is calling for car boot sale shoppers to tell them about dodgy dealings or experiences.

Innocent shoppers have unwittingly bought poor quality counterfeit DVDs on sale as the genuine articles, and tools and ornaments stolen from gardens and sheds have found their way on to market stalls.

In the past year, trading standards officers in the county have made five seizures at markets and car boot sales, finding fake Nike and Playboy clothes, Ferrari lanyards and counterfeit DVDs.

Council member Colin Lamont, who is leading the investigation for the community safety scrutiny committee, said: "Thousands of people regularly flood to car boot sales every weekend in search of a bargain.

"Yet few people will be aware that this pleasant pastime is being increasingly abused by a few people profiting from the sale of fake and substandard goods.

"Everyone knows that car boot sales are an excellent way of recycling unwanted goods, but we do need to know that the products that are for sale at them are not being misadvertised or in any other way fraudulently sold."

Traders caught with counterfeit goods face arrest for copyright and trades description offences.

Mr Lamont added: "We are concerned that these great events are sometimes tainted by a few rogue traders masquerading as private individuals, with a view to escaping tax, VAT and their legal and moral obligations to their customers, and that some goods for sale at such events and other markets may be counterfeit, substandard or even stolen."

The county council survey will involve talks with police, trading standards officers, shoppers and traders, and is expected to last two months.

Scrutiny officer Matt Bramall said it would create council guidelines for operating car boot sales.

There are 11 regular car boot sales in the county and some attract up to 150 cars and 2,000 shoppers.

Police and trading standards officers seized 1,621 counterfeit DVDs and 300 'pirate' CDs on sale at the Big Ben Car Boot Sale at the Kassam Stadium.

Many of the titles were pornographic, while other films included latest cinema releases, such as Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest.

The raid followed an investigation by Oxfordshire County Council trading standards officers, in which 'spotters' moved secretly around the sale identifying illegal sales.