A shop has opened up in Regent Street claiming you can purchase top brand electricals at knock down prices. Now Swindon's trading standards officers are warning people to be cautious of sales like these.

TRADING Standards officers handed out warning leaflets to people entering a shop advertising bargains such as £1,200 computers for £250 and £99 pocket televisions for £5.

And they revealed there had already been two complaints about items bought there.

The leaflets handed out to potential customers at the former bargain clothes shop in Regent Street warned about so-called one day sales, and mock auctions.

However, the officers stressed that they were not saying the shop was running such an operation and the staff also denied this.

Mock auctions and one-day sales are frowned on by trading standards officers nationwide because they often involve customers being duped into buying items of low value in the expectation of receiving genuine bargains.

Swindon Trading Standards education officer Carla Doughty was among the officials handing out leaflets.

She said: "At the moment we are being cautious, in that it is a shop we do not know a lot about.

"It seems to have appeared rather quickly."

She added that there had been two complaints from customers since the shop opened at the weekend.

One was for a £65 camera which the purchaser did not think was worth the money, and the other was a £5 pen whose buyer had a similar complaint.

Among the items advertised in the window and through loudspeakers were:

A £1,200 Sony laptop computer for £250.

A £120 Canon camera for £3.

A £215 14-inch JVC television for £80.

A £149m Sony minidisc player for £10.

A £99 Casio pocket television for £5.

None of the men working in the shop were willing to comment extensively or give their names.

One said that the business was called Chartwell and gave a business card listing its headquarters as Chartwell Business Centre, The Avenue, Bromley, Kent.

They claimed Trading Standards was victimising them, that they were being wrongly "lumped in" with one-day sales and mock auctions, and that they would be at the venue for some time to come.

They also said they were legitimately selling end-of line goods at bargain prices and that the firm's owner, whom they identified as Gary Milton, would not be available to comment until Thursday.

Trading Standards team leader Phil Thomas said: "I'm not saying definitely that this is a one day sale or a mock auction, but it has the hallmarks.

"All we are doing is highlighting people's awareness of these sorts of companies."

Among the passers-by who took the Trading Standards leaflets was Dave Illingworth, 27, who lives in Bath but is a procurement manager with BT in Swindon.

He said: "I went to something like this in London a few years ago. I ended up buying a black bag full of junk, but I don't think I ended up paying that much for it."

Another passer-by, 69-year-old John Kent from Liden, said: "We don't need this. There are plenty of places in Swindon where you can buy quality items at good prices."