Edinburgh Woollen Mill cleared of mislabelling

The retailer, which is based in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway, was charged with falsely claiming scarves were 100 per cent cashmere on two occasions in 2014 and went on trial at Dumfries Sheriff Court.

After four days of evidence, Sheriff George Jamieson found the company not guilty and said he is satisfied no regulations had been breached in the labelling of the products.

Defence witnesses told the court their testing had found the scarf samples to be “commercially pure” – containing more than 95 per cent cashmere. Dr Philip Greaves said two other tests that showed cashmere levels of 84.4 per cent and 61.6 per cent may have been incorrect as the analysts were not used for testing bleached products which can make cashmere hard to identify.

Concluding the case, Sheriff Jamieson said: “The accused have presented evidence which would persuade me there is no breach. This is clearly a highly-skilled area, so while not impugning Crown witnesses, I think the defence evidence would persuade me.”