Three men have been found guilty of illegally trying to sell goods door-to-door at Eden Valley homes after they failed to attend their court hearing.
Last month, 36-year-old Middlesbrough man Jason Caswell was fined by magistrates in Carlisle.
Caswell admitted he had been aggressively selling at houses in the area without the pedlar’s certificate which granted him permission to do so.
He was prosecuted under criminal legislation passed more than 150 years ago, in 1871, and handed an £80 fine in view of his guilty plea.
The court heard of door-to-door selling which had occurred in Armathwaite and Calthwaite, and which was reported to police on January 24.
Three other men located inside a vehicle, said a prosecutor, had admitted to police on the day they were selling cleaning products in the villages.
As a result they, too, were charged with acting as a pedlar without the proper certificate.
Thomas Petch, 22, of Kinross Avenue, Middlesbrough; Logan Petch, 18, of Redland Close, Stockton-on-Tees, and 30-year-old Jak Ford, of Avens Way, also Stockton, had been due to appear at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court this week.
But after the three men failed to attend their scheduled hearing, the case was proved in their absence and they were each found guilty of the crime.
Thomas Petch and Logan Petch were both fined £440, while Ford was handed a £500 fine.
