CLAIMS that slimming pills which helped produce weight loss while you were asleep was bogus, a court heard yesterday.

Trading standards officers in North Yorkshire took action when they were tipped off about the bogus herbal remedies sold by Libra International (Euro) .

The company, of Watford, Hertfordshire, is an offshoot of an American company with a network of 700 distributors all over Europe.

However, Harrogate magistrates took a dim view of claims made for the Sleep 'n' Slim food supplement and fined the company £12,000.

Libra International was also ordered to pay costs of £2,220 after it admitted five charges under the 1968 Trade Descriptions Act.

The company was told by presiding magistrate Gillian Horrox it had been guilty of negligence and had profited by making false claims.

Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said the charges concerned products called Sleep 'n' Slim Food Supplement and Oxyplus, said to be a stabilised oxygen supplement.

A trading standards specialist food officer began an investigation in August 1999 after being told of a newspaper advert for the products. She used a false name to make contact with Libra which was selling Oxyplus for £25 and Sleep 'n' Slim for £49.95.

Mr Bennett said leaflets supplied with the products caused concern.

"They appeared to be something of miracle cures," he said.

Analysis by experts showed their true worth. A typical person would lose 500 calories while asleep, but anyone taking Libra's aid would find the calorie loss would be 448.

Mr Bennett said: "It was using pseudo-scientific technology to mislead people into thinking it was a cure."

Experts also dismissed claims for Oxyplus - the raising of the oxygen level in arterial blood and making of oxygen available to be absorbed directly into the bloodstream - as bogus.

Other claims concerning relief from illnesses such as asthma and depression were found to have no basis in scientific fact.

For the company, Simon Myerson said the claims of help with depression and asthma were founded on testimonials from customers.

"There are people who by taking somethng can be made to feel better when they are not suffering from illness but from unhappiness," he said