Fraudulently sold mattresses costing Yorkshire bed manufacturers over £40m annually

This number has doubled in the last six months as consumers try to cut spending under the pressure of the cost of living crisis.

The growing fraud is estimated to be costing the UK bed and mattress industry around £100m per annum, and Yorkshire and the Humber manufacturers are bearing the brunt of this cost as 40 per cent of the industry’s reputable businesses are based in the region, the NBF said.

The federation is warning consumers that buying a mattress from non reputable traders is a false economy, as they are not the quality or brand of product they are labelled to be and they may also be unhygienic, second-hand mattresses or even unsafe due to the use of banned materials.

Simon Williams from the National Bed Federation said: “Some of these products are actually dangerous as they almost certainly won’t have undergone testing to ensure they meet UK mattress flammability regulations that reduce the chance of fires in homes.

“At worst, the mattress may contain an old, used spring unit along with dirty fillings, and the NBF has even come across cases where rogue traders have simply placed old mattresses inside brand-new covers.”

The most recent consumer mattress buying surveys undertaken by the NBF, covering 1,000 people who had bought a mattress in the previous six months, showed that in October 2022, four per cent reported buying their mattress from a doorstep or ‘back of the van’ trader, compared to two per cent the previous year.

Mr Williams added: “Unfortunately, our latest research backs up the anecdotal information we’ve been receiving in recent months that this activity is on the rise as fraudsters look to prey on the most vulnerable in society who are struggling the hardest under the burden of rising costs.

"We’ve also heard from retailers and recycling centres that they’ve seen an increase in requests from traders wanting to take old, used mattresses off them.”