AN experiment by trading standards officials has revealed that in a matter of hours a student can obtain £9,700 in credit.

Middlesbrough Borough Council's Trading Standards Advice Centre asked Angela Dowdle, a final-year student at Teesside University, to take part in the experiment as part of National Consumer Week, being launched today.

Ms Dowdle went into Middlesbrough with the aim of getting as much credit as she could, and emerged a few hours later with a total of £9,700 credit at her disposal from both catalogues and store cards.

She was surprised that no one seemed concerned that she was a student and would probably already have a student loan.

She said: "It seems far too easy for someone to be tempted into getting more and more credit. I thought that with my income, I should have been refused at some shops. I was also surprised by the limits I was allowed. In one store alone, I was given £1,000 to spend."

Following the findings, trading standards is urging people not to over-commit themselves to credit and is warning that debt can affect anyone.

Middlesbrough Council's commissioner for the environment, Councillor Oliver Johnson, encouraged people to use the council's Trading Standards Money Advice Service, based at 51 Corporation Road.

He said: "As well as providing help once you have a debt problem, it can help you avoid debt occurring in the first place."