ANCIENT legislation drawn up during Queen Victoria’s reign to licence pedlars, has been used to prosecute modern-day doorstep sellers in North Yorkshire.

The Pedlars Act 1871, first drawn up during the industrial revolution, has been used to fine two men going house to house selling cleaning products near Stokesley without a licence earlier this year.

Local residents in Hutton Rudby contacted police to tell them two men were seen knocking on doors at about 7pm on Monday, January 23 carrying bags containing household cleaning products.

Police from Stokesley found the two men and established they did not possess Pedlar’s Certificates which would have allowed them to carry out door step selling legitimately.

As a result Ben McLaren Craster, 18 and Josh Mark John Dack, 20, from Middlesbrough were charged and attended Northallerton Magistrates Court on March 13.

There, they both pleaded guilty to acting as pedlars without having obtained a certificate under the Pedlars Act 1871. Both were ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £155 each.

The legislation originally defined a pedlar as including a “caster of metals, mender of chairs, or other person who, without any horse or other beast bearing or drawing burden, travels and trades on foot.” According to the act, lending your pedlar’s licence for someone else to use could incur a fine of "no more than 20 shillings".

Now more often used to regular ticket touts, the act gives police power to grant a certificate to a person "of good character" to trade on foot.

The Government looked at scrapping the Victorian legislation several years ago, but these attempts were dropped in 2014 after an outcry from sales people who said it gave them legitimacy, while councils and police thought the rules remained essential.

A spokesperson for the police said: “North Yorkshire Police are urging residents to keep an eye out for suspicious activity, particularly in rural villages like Hutton Rudby, and call it in via the 101 non-emergency number (or 999 in an emergency).”