CONSUMERS last night welcomed a landmark ruling that should stop high street stores promoting misleading sales.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has won a legal battle against a North-East fashion retailer that ran an almost year-round "70 per cent off" offer.

News of the High Court ruling has delighted trading watchdogs, who believe shoppers will no longer be tricked into thinking their are getting bargains when they are not.

Fashion chain The Officers Club, which has 180 outlets across the country and many in this region, was found guilty of publishing adverts that were inaccurate under the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988.

The chain had initially refused to give an undertaking not to repeat the misleading claim, but bosses have now promised to end the practice after being threatened with fines or even imprisonment.

Company director, David Charlton, admitted the chain had been aggressively exploiting a loophole in the rules which govern sales.

But he insisted: "It is a technique used by 99.9 per cent of retailers, in department stores and right through the high street."

Mr Charlton forecast that the judgement against his Sunderland-based company could be used by the OFT to launch a crackdown on other traders.

And OFT chairman Sir John Vickers said: "Price cuts are an important competitive strategy and good for consumers, but misleading discount advertisements distort competition and consumer choice.

"This judgement is good for both consumers and good for fair-trading businesses."

As part of the sales strategy, many large retailers deliberately increase prices on items for a short time in only a small number of stores, but then use the inflated price as an artificial benchmark and claim cuts of 50 per cent and more across all their branches.

The OFT said: "The judgment clarified that, for a trader's higher price to be genuine, the goods must be offered for sale at that price in significant quantities and for a sufficient length of time for potential customers to be aware that the goods are for sale, to consider whether to purchase them and for such transactions to have taken place."

The ploy was often used in the January sales and by furniture and kitchen retailers, but it had become a year-round tactic used by stores keen to tap into consumers' love of a bargain.