POLICE are warning people not to buy fake gold jewellery from bogus street traders in York city centre.

Fifteen Eastern European people have already been detained and searched by officers, and then sent packing from the city, after complaints from members of the public who have been ripped off.

Police have seized jewellery with an estimated street value of £3,000.

Unsuspecting shoppers have been paying out £50 or more for the fakes, in the belief that they are the genuine article.

One forked out £130 for a chain.

Sergeant Martin Metcalfe, of York Police, said: "I want to warn people that this jewellery is total rubbish and they are being ripped off.

"Basically, they look genuine but then the day after you've bought them your neck or your finger goes green and all the gold drops off."

He said he believed the traders were travelling around cities in the North of England and had already visited Barnsley, Sheffield, Newcastle and Leeds.

He said: "Then they all came to York last week.

"The problem is, once somebody has bought something they are unable to get their money back.

"But I did make one customer very happy by getting £55 back which he had paid for a ring.

"I want to warn everybody to be aware of what they are buying from these Eastern European traders in the city centre, because what looks like a good offer is not always the case."

Police are now clamping down on illegal street traders, and one has already been found to be an illegal immigrant.

They are now awaiting deportation.

He said: "Legitimate market traders in town are paying thousands of pounds in rent and it's not fair on them that other people think they can just buy a trolley and set up a stall."

He said the traders selling fake gold jewellery had travelled to the city from Birmingham and Nottingham.

He said: "Some of them had come here by train so I took them all to the railway station and made them buy a one way train ticket.

"Others had come by car, so I escorted them all out of the city in the direction of the A64.

"So far, none of them have been back so it seems to have worked."