THE owner of a designer boutique has defended herself against malicious gossip which claims she is selling counterfeit goods.

Pat Copeland, who runs Joseph M, in Darlington, said she was devastated when she discovered that some of the rumours had even found their way onto the social networking website, Facebook.

She said that the gossip claimed that she had featured in a court report in The Northern Echo having been prosecuted for selling counterfeit goods.

However, Mrs Copeland, who has run Joseph M for 14 years, said none of the gossip is true and all the clothing in her shop is authentic designer wear.

She first became aware of the rumours shortly before Christmas when a couple of her customers visited the shop, in Grange Road, to check the authenticity of items they had bought.

Shortly afterwards, one of her sales assistants came across a Facebook page where several posts claimed that the clothes in Joseph M were fake.

The posts related in particular to the Barbour clothing, which Mrs Copeland stocked in the shop.

However, Mrs Copeland said she is an official Barbour retailer and is listed as such on the company’s website.

She has said that all of her customers have remained loyal and her business has not suffered, but she wanted to dispel the lies before they could affect trading.

She said: “I was disgusted when I heard these rumours, I was sick to the stomach.

“I was hurt that such rumours were going around.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years and there’s no way I would ever jeopardise my career by selling fakes.

“We get a lot of celebrities and footballers’ wives in here, they’re all really, really lovely customers, and these sort of rumours can be very damaging.”

Mrs Copeland has said that she will be contacting Facebook to get the offensive posts removed.

Darlington Borough Council confirmed that its trading standards department was not investigating Joseph M.