March 3 (Bloomberg) -- A British appeals court upheld a 380,000-pound ($726,000) damages award to Borders Group Inc.'s U.K. unit and seven other retailers in their civil lawsuit against a London book shoplifting ring.

The retailers last year sued ``street trader'' Ronald Jordan for selling at his market stalls in the city ``possibly hundreds of thousands of new books'' stolen by shoplifters, according to court documents. Jordan, who made more than 600,000 pounds from the stalls between November 2001 and July 2003, was in January 2004 sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to steal books and handling stolen goods.

The U.K. Court of Appeal today dismissed Jordan's challenge to the size of the damages award, ruling that it was defensible given his own ``outrageous'' conduct.

The retailers estimated at Jordan's criminal trial last year that sales at his stalls had cost them around 2.4 million pounds.

The case is A2/2004/1550 Borders (UK) Ltd. & ors v. Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis & anr.

To contact the reporter on this story: Megan Murphy in London at mmurphy41@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 3, 2005 07:24 EST