A ROGUE trader told to pay more than £500,000 for a confiscation order is set to fight the sum at London s Court of Appeal. Jhalman Singh, of Warwick Avenue, Bedford, was sentenced to 100 hours community service in August 2005 after convictions for severa

A ROGUE trader told to pay more than £500,000 for a confiscation order is set to fight the sum at London's Court of Appeal.

Jhalman Singh, of Warwick Avenue, Bedford, was sentenced to 100 hours community service in August 2005 after convictions for several trademark offences.

In May last year, the 53-year-old, who had sold counterfeit goods from his market stalls in St Neots and Bedford, was made the subject of a confiscation order at Luton Crown Court totalling £585,422.63.

He was found by a judge to be "thoroughly dishonest" and his account books were described as "wholly fictitious".

Last week at the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice Tugendhat and Mrs Justice Cox, said there was no reason to challenge those findings.

However he said that Singh may have a legitimate complaint that the sum of £585,422 took into account sales of genuine clothing as well as the counterfeit goods.

The case will return to court later this year for a full appeal.

Singh, who traded for 14 years, was found with dozens of counterfeit items of ­clothing during a raid on his market stall in May 2003, and a second swoop in November 2004, which also took in ­residential addresses in ­Bedford.

Lord Justice Laws said there was "no dispute" that Singh had "persistently sold counterfeit goods".