A former rock singer claimed his coat was made of fur from the endangered gorilla outraging many in Britain and prompting an investigation. But the shaggy garment turned out to be made of monkey pelts, so the entertainer will not face charges.
Pete Burns of the 1980s band Dead or Alive made his unpopular fashion claim on a reality TV program called "Celebrity Big Brother," upsetting fellow contestants as well as viewers.
Investigators seized the coat for testing at London's Natural History Museum, which determined the coat was made from fur of black and white colobus monkeys, police said.
The monkeys are native to Africa, and it has been illegal to import their skins to Britain since 1975, so police next tried to determine when the coat was made.
Judging by its poor condition, a statement from the Crown Prosecutors Service said, the pelts had likely been imported sometime in the 1930s or 1940s.
So while Burns may have committed a fashion crime in the eyes of British television viewers, "there is no evidence to suggest that this garment was imported illegally," the prosecutors' statement said Thursday. The coat will be returned to Burns, they added.
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