Edinburgh Woollen Mill cleared by court of mislabelling scarves

The retailer, owned by entrepreneur Philip Day, was cleared at the Sheriff Court in Dumfries on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Woollen Mill said it was “delighted” with the not guilty verdict, after claiming it had been “dogged by inaccurate and spurious complaints” for two years.

Day slammed the case as “an appalling waste of public money” and said it was “time consuming, expensive and impactful” to the business.

Expert evidence  

As previously reported, the retailer was charged with falsely claiming scarves were 100% cashmere on two occasions in 2014 at its Church Place store in Dumfries, which is now closed.

During four days of evidence, the court heard that two leading independent experts Dr Philip Greaves and Mary Lunn had tested the scarves and confirmed that they were accurately labelled 100% cashmere.

Sheriff George Jamieson found the company not guilty and said he was satisfied no regulations had been breached.

‘Robust processes’

Day, who bought the Austin Reed brand earlier this year and revealed plans to open up to 50 stores under the fascia, said: “We always maintained that our testing processes are robust and that other organisations who profit from this industry had instigated this action.

“EWM is proud to have supplied its customers with cashmere scarves which represent excellent value for money, over many years.

“These scarves are sold as cashmere, tested as cashmere and are 100% cashmere as the court has confirmed.”