Can I buy 3 x 0.5mm2 mains cable with a moulded UK plug ?

[turretslug]

Without wishing to descend too deeply into national stereotyping, it's certainly a case of "here be dragons". There have been quite a few rogues' gallery posts here, not to mention all over the internet, regarding the spiv culture of below-the-radar goods that get churned out by mystery production lines in far-away-lands. I suspect that if any national authority tried to follow up any of the dodgy overseas sourcing, it would quickly get mired in a soup of obfuscation, front-companies, denial and buck-passing.

When someone passes me a dead wall-wart, laptop PSU etc., I'll take the rubber mallet to it out of curiosity if I can spare the time- even in recognised brands, it's usual nowadays to find that the earth tag of C6 ("cloverleaf", "Mickey Mouse") laptop supplies is unconnected internally and left floating, making it effectively just a polarised C8. 15 or so years ago, it would at least have a connection to Y-class capacitors to each side of the supply and/or output 0V connection. Perhaps it's a cynical awareness of this that drives leaving the earth wire unconnected in moulded connector flexes! Time is money and all that....

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by eddie_ce

I am at a loss to understand how such tat can legally be sold or imported into the UK.

It can't, but as a Nation we're addicted to Dell-Boy "entrepreneurs" or rather their prices. The consumer protection people are under resourced and even derided in some quarters. It can take TV exposure to get action sometimes, and they're understandably selective about what they feature.