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A father and son who ran an import company selling fake designer handbags and wallets have been prosecuted by Westminster City Council.
A Trading standards officer worked undercover as a trader buying goods from Jenna Imports to prove Mohammed Salih and his father Mahmud Salih knowingly supplied fakes.
Officers seized almost 1,000 items in total including fake Gucci handbags, Prada wallets and Armani purses after investigations into other traders selling counterfeit goods led them to the Acton-based company.
Mohammed Salih, 22, pleaded guilty to 17 offences under the Trade Marks Act 1994 while his father Mahmud, 54, pleaded guilty to six offences.
The pair were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court when Judge Andrew Goymer told Mohammed Salih that he had narrowly avoided a prison sentence. He added: “The presence of counterfeit goods damages the economy, damages the manufacturers and deceives the public.”
Mohammed was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 12 months and was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,000 costs.
Mahmud was given a 12-week sentence suspended for six months and was given a curfew order stating he must be at his home between 9pm and 7am every day for six months.
Cllr. Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for community protection, said: “This company knowingly imported fake goods to supply traders in central London. They didn’t care that they would be making a profit from selling fake and often wholly sub-standard goods to unsuspecting customers.
“We want to support genuine traders in Westminster and will not tolerate people who seek to undermine their efforts and rip off shoppers. The work of our trading standards officers will ensure this remains the case.”
The pair were importing items from Dubai and it is believed they supplied at least two market traders – who have already been prosecuted for selling counterfeit goods by Westminster council.
For more information, contact Jenny Legg at Westminster City Council press office on 020 7641 2259.
A market trader caught selling more than £250,000 in fake designer goods has been given a 30-week suspended sentence and told her licence to run a market stall should be reviewed.
Camlin Tian, 46, of Coombe Road, London (W4), was caught three times by Westminster’s trading standards officers selling more than 1,500 fakes including counterfeit Gucci bags, wallets and belts.
She was found guilty of 16 offences under the Trade Marks Act 1994 at Southwark Crown Court on October 1, 2008.
Sentencing Tian in the same court, Judge Nicholas Lorraine-Smith said: “I think you should go to prison and I think you deserve it for flouting the law.”
He said he had opted for a 30-week suspended sentence because she had two children but said he had done this begrudgingly and commented that it was "distasteful” relying on her children to keep her out of prison.
Tian was also ordered to complete 240 hours’ community service within 12 months and pay £360 towards Westminster City Councils costs. The judge added that he wanted a transcript of his sentencing remarks sent to the licensing authority so officers could review Tian’s licence to run a market stall in light of the conviction. Tian’s market licence has subsequently been revoked.
Cllr. Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for community protection at the council, said: “We will not stand by and let innocent people get ripped off by buying fake goods they think are real. Selling these goods is illegal. Shoppers in Westminster deserve an honest service. We want to support genuine traders and protect customers from these criminals. Counterfeit goods have recognised links to organised crime and their sale and proliferation must be curtailed.”
Westminster’s Trading Standards department brought the prosecution after officers raided Tian’s stall in Church Street market and found counterfeit goods on three separate occasions.
Tian was selling handbags, wallets, purses, belts, caps and mobile phone covers bearing the names Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Chanel, Chloe, Burberry, DKNY and Dolce & Gabbana. The haul, if genuine, would have been worth £250,000.
For more information contact Jenny Legg at Westminster City Council press office on 020 7641 2259.
Dodgy handbags dealer prosecuted by council
A Queensway trader has pleaded guilty of trying to dupe customers into buying more than 200 fake couture handbags and fashion accessories, which could have made him £10,000 in dodgy deals.
Westminster Council's Trading Standards officers raided Boutiques in Queensway after a customer tip off and found Ahmad Samim with a stock of 219 allegedly 'designer' bags and accessories.
Among the brands he was purporting to sell were products from Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Chloe. Most of the stock was handbags, but the Westminster team also found wallets, purses, watches, scarves, belts, jewellery and key rings.
Real handbags by these designers are likely to sell for at least £500 each but Samim, of Kings Drive, Edgware, was selling the fake handbags for around £50. Southwark Crown Court heard he thought they were cheap because they were second hand. If he had gone undetected and all the bags had been sold, his scam activity could have left genuine recognised retailers £100,000 out of pocket - the value of the bags if they had been genuine.
In mitigation, Samim, 34, owner of the business, argued the goods had actually been ordered by his shop manager, and he had no knowledge of them, and that the supplier had stated they were authorised to sell the goods. He had denied the offence until the last minute.
Judge Gledhill described his defence as 'ludicrous' and said, among other reasons; he only escaped a jail sentence because there were young children relying on him for support.
The council prosecuted Samim, under section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994 on one specimen charge against each brand, in a trial lasting more than two days. Samim, who had earlier indicated a not guilty plea, changed his mind at the last minute.
The council's Trading Standards team was made aware of the dodgy gear by an anonymous customer tip off to their hotline 020 7641 1111.
Judge Gledhill told the court the protection of trademarks was of considerable public importance. He sentenced Samim to 200 hours community service and a one year suspended prison sentence (suspended for 18 months). He was also ordered to pay £1,000 towards Westminster Council's prosecution costs and was told he should have entered a guilty plea at the start of the trial.
Speaking after the hearing, Dean Ingledew, Westminster Council's community protection director, said: "Dodgy dealers like Samim are fooling customers into thinking they have bought a quality product, when in fact they are likely to get a cheap, badly made fake. "The council will do its utmost to support our genuine traders, and protect the millions of buyers who shop in central London every year, by forcing out those attempting to con people."
Mr Ingledew also praised the person who 'shopped' the shop, saying: "We need more people to come forward like this, when they see what they think are fake goods being sold. There is no need to approach the shopkeeper or put yourself in any danger, just call our trading standards officers and we will investigate."
Shoppers and residents who believe trademarks are being infringed or who see goods being sold which they think are fake are encouraged to report businesses to Trading Standards on 020 7641 1111 or by emailing tradingstandards@westminster.gov.uk.
‘Friendly’ Supermarket Fined
At Westminster Magistrates Court, Fyrewood Ltd t/a Friend's Supermarket, 82 Lupus Street, SW1V 3EL, and a Director of the company Abdul Rahman, pleaded guilty to selling a packet of cigarettes to a sixteen year old child and were fined a total of £615, and ordered to pay £400 towards the prosecution costs.
The child volunteer was assisting Trading Standards in a test purchasing exercise when he purchased the cigarettes. The court was told that during the test purchasing exercise, Mr Rahman failed to ask the child his age or proof of identification. The court further heard that the shop had been fined previously by Westminster Magistrates Court for selling cigarettes to a minor in 2002.
In mitigation the court heard Mr Rahman, the Director state, "...the day I sold the cigarettes we were four months into the law change. We were adjusting to the new law"; a reference to the law controlling the sale of tobacco changing so that it is an offence for any person to sell tobacco to a person under the age of 18 years, whether or not for the child’s own use.
Sue Jones, Operations Manager for Trading Standards Service stated after the case, “We will continue to monitor the sale of age restricted goods. I find it amazing that a trader proceeds with the sale without having the awareness to ask the child’s age. These are exactly the sort of traders that we wish to target. I would advise all those who are involved in the sale of age restricted goods that they have a legal duty to ensure that they have adequate procedures in place to avoid the possibility of them being supplied to underage children”.
Auction House under the Hammer
During 2007 more houses were going under the hammer at auctions than at any other time during the last 10 years; so when a consumer attended an auction run by Savills, a well established Estate Agent and property auctioneer usually seen on the television programme ‘Homes under the Hammer’, he expected the descriptions to match the photograph.
However, Savills Ltd pleaded guilty to 2 offences under the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991. The company were fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,512. The court heard that a consumer attended a property auction in Westminster and purchased a lot described as Victorian ‘ground floor flat’ within ‘2 storeys’ in ‘reasonable decorative order’.
The consumer had previously received an auction catalogue which had descriptions and photographs of various properties up for auction. After receiving the catalogue the consumer viewed a number of properties using the catalogue’s viewing schedule but on this particular lot there was no schedule and therefore the property was not viewed by the consumer.
At the auction the photograph of the property along with the description also appeared on a large screen. The lot received several bids and our consumer submitted the winning bid of £125,000. The consumer paid his deposit and received his legal papers. When he got home he checked the Land Registry Papers and saw that he had actually purchased a ‘basement flat’ in a ‘three storey building’. He viewed the property and had it surveyed to discover that the property suffered from damp, wood bore infestation and a leak through the bathroom ceiling which had mould spores.
On investigation by Westminster Trading Standards it appeared that the system used by Savills for checking the descriptions given to them by the seller was woefully inadequate, furthermore Savills accepted the details of the seller without verifying the information. The seller was also able to provide several documents including fax confirmation sheets demonstrating that he tried to correct Savills’s catalogue descriptions 2 weeks before the auction. Savills claimed that the fax number was incorrect and therefore they did not receive the corrections. A test fax was sent by the investigating officer and a response was received by a Savills agent within 40 minutes.
The purchaser said that he would never have bought the £125,000 flat in Plumstead, south-east London if he had known it was in the basement.
Sue Jones, head of Westminster Trading Standards said, “I hope this prosecution sends a stark warning to all estate agents that they cannot cut corners and they have a legal duty to be diligent when preparing this kind of information.
"In the current financial climate more buyers are likely to attend property auctions looking for a good deal and they are entitled to trust the information presented to them. Buying a property is a massive financial commitment and to find out afterwards that the property you have bought is not what you were told could be disastrous.
“We are delighted that in this instance, the buyer has reached a settlement with Savills and has finally been compensated both financially and emotionally“.
District Judge Michael Snow said at the hearing, “Unbelievably the agent used the description of the property without visiting the premises. He had a cavalier attitude; at the very least he was negligent and certainly reckless”.
He went on to say this meant the company itself was also at fault. “I find that the company bore significant responsibility, vicariously spread through the company. There may not have been agreement and connivance of directors but there was a culture within the company and culpability in my judgement was high in this case. Savills’ actions had harmed the estate agent profession as a whole as well as the purchaser, who was entitled to rely on the property descriptions”.
Angela Rippon launched national amnesty for scam mail
Angela Rippon launched a national amnesty for scam mail in Westminster on 2nd February 2009. The veteran presenter fronted the Scamnesty campaign to collect and audit people’s scam mail across the country for the Office of Fair Trading.
The campaign was backed by almost 90 local authorities including Westminster City Council which asked residents to drop their scam mail into designated Scamnesty bins or envelopes in libraries, One Stop Shops and other council buildings.
Trading standards officers across the country then sorted through the collected letters and emails to ascertain new trends in the types of scam and their origin so they, and the OFT, can better warn people about scams they may receive. An estimated three million people fall victim to scams in the post, by text, phone or via the internet each year and cost the UK public £3.5billion annually.
Cllr. Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for community protection at Westminster City Council, said: “Scams are becoming ever more sophisticated so it’s important we take stock and audit these letters and emails so we know exactly what methods and ruses the fraudsters are now using - and then warn people about them.
“Last year we uncovered the UK’s first money mule scam where victims were duped into laundering money for fraudsters. Now we know this exists, we are warning people to be wary of competitions and prize draws even if they receive substantial cheques in the post and we warn people against giving out their personal details.”
Victims of the money mule scam were told they had won prize money but needed to send off cash through money transfers to release it. Those who were used as money mules were told “agents” would send them cheques to help release their winnings and they were to forward on the money – again via money transfer. However, the “agents” were in fact other victims of the scam.
The investigation, which has revealed at least 20 victims across the country so far, has now been handed over to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and police in Canada, where it is believed the fraudsters are based.
The money mule twist on a prize draw scam is just one of the ways fraudsters are evolving traditional scams to dupe victims into handing over more money; victims have been scammed by bogus lotteries, deceptive prize draws and sweepstakes, fake psychics and miracle health cures, all of which convince their victims that the scams are legitimate.
Mike Haley, OFT director of consumer protection, said: “Scammers are sophisticated at targetting people who are often the most vulnerable in society perhaps because they are isolated or financially desperate. As we enter tougher economic times it is more important than ever for people to be alert to prevent themselves, or friends, families and neighbours from falling victim to these heartless money-making schemes.”
Last year, more than 15,000 letters were collected across the country during the Scamnesty Scams Awareness Month providing an insight into the latest scams in operation in the UK. At the present time it is too early to report the success of this years campaign.
A trader caught selling fake designer handbags, wallets and watches has been prosecuted by Westminster City Council.
The court heard that Harvey Jessamine was caught by Westminster’s trading standards officers with more than 1,500 fake bags, belts, wallets and watches at his concession inside a shop called Amazon in Oxford Street.
The haul, which would have been worth thousands of pounds if real, was seized along with more than £2,000 Jessamine had on him in cash.
Jessamine, 35, of Tollerton Lane, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to 28 offences under the Trade Marks 1994 Act at City of Westminster Magistrates Court.
Before passing sentence the court heard that Harvey Jessamine had a previous conviction for selling counterfeit goods in 2002 in Nottingham.
He was sentenced to 150 hours community punishment and ordered to pay £4,000 in costs. The cash seized - £2,100 - was also forfeited as proceeds of his crime.
The district judge, who sentenced Jessamine said his offences were “very serious” and that if he failed to complete his community punishment order, he could be sent to jail.
Head of Trading Standards, Sue Jones said, “This trader not only supplied fake goods to consumers but also to other traders in Central London. He didn’t care that he would be making a profit from selling fake and often wholly sub-standard goods to unsuspecting tourists”.
“We want to support genuine traders in Westminster, especially during this economic downturn. The work of the Trading Standards team will ensure that this continues to happen”.