A court in Northern Ireland has imposed a fine on an estate agent after the firm was accused of failing to describe a property accurately.

The Trading Standards Service of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment brought the prosecution against Country Estates (NI), after a client of the company complained that he had been misled by description in literature about a property he later bought.

Country Estates pleaded guilty to misdescription, having claimed a property had double glazed windows in a promotional brochure when it did not.

Trading Standards inspector, Philip McClenaghan said: "Estate agents must make sure that properties they advertise must be accurately described in brochures, or in any other information they give to prospective purchasers."

Belfast and Newtownabbey Magistrates'' Court handed down a £100 penalty for the offence under section one of the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991.

All residential and commercial properties advertised are included in the act and fines can vary, with one firm in Wales ordered to pay £1,000 court costs in addition to a penalty fee of £1,000 after it falsely advertised that a plot of land had planning permission.