A market trader denied using his sales banter to con shop customers, telling a court he had never forced anyone to buy anything.

David Cranston told Hove Crown Court all he did was sell the goods he was asked to shift during sales at The Outlet store in North Street, Brighton.

Yesterday, a jury heard Cranston, of Little Bay Close, Stotfield, Hertfordshire, conducted auction-type sales at the store before it was raided by trading standards officers in November 2001.

He told the court he worked at The Outlet for about ten days during the six weeks the store was trading. He said he took a ten per cent cut each time.

Cranston denied his patter had been misleading and rejected suggestions he had played on people's trust.

He said: "I pick things up and say the price. If people want to buy them they buy them. If they don't, they don't. Nobody was forced to buy anything."

Cranston said he had been a salesman since childhood, working markets, stalls and horse fairs in Ireland.

He had adopted his sales patter from a market trader in Wales because he thought it was a better system.

He rejected claims the atmosphere in The Outlet would become increasingly hostile during his sales.

He said: "I would describe it as jovial. It's banter. It is what you get at any market you go to up and down the country.

"You would never sell something to anyone by being nasty to them."

He said his customers could always get a refund, adding: "I haven't induced or defrauded anybody."

The court heard Cranston had used the name David Harvey for several years because he "preferred" it.

He admitted lying in telling customers not to pick up the bags they received because they had security devices.

He said it was in case people of "foreign nationality" mistakenly believed they were getting the goods for nothing and tried to leave without paying.

The court also heard from Barry Joseph, who was a helper during The Outlet sales.

Londoner Joseph, 36, said he gave out leaflets, handed out bags and collected money at the store, receiving £60 per day.

Asked if he had intended to trick the public in any way, he replied: "No".

Cranston; Joseph; Liam McBratney, of Lansdowne Place, Hove; Lisa Firth, of Greenacres, Shoreham; John Sexton, of Tufnell Park Road, London; and John Cook, of College Cross, Islington, London, all deny charges of conspiring to defraud people by dishonestly inducing them to purchase goods. The trial continues.