Police To Quiz 16 year old over suspected eBay counterfeiting fraud
Published May 10th, 2006
A 16-YEAR-OLD boy and his parents who are alleged to have run a professional counterfeiting operation from an attic bedroom are to be questioned by police this month.
Officers swooped on three homes last August in Harwood, Sharples and Deane seizing fake goods which would have been worth £500,000 if sold as genuine.
The 16-year-old, who was arrested at his Deane home, was the youngest of three males to be arrested during the raids mounted by trading standards officers.
Now he and his parents are to be questioned by police and trading standards officers following extensive investigations. Glen Phoenix, from Bolton Trading Standards, said: “A lot of money has gone through various accounts linked to the family and we are looking at charging them with conspiracy to defraud. We will be issuing summonses at the end of this month.”
Mr Phoenix added: “This raid was part of our ongoing fight to stop counterfeiting in Bolton.”
During the August raid at the terraced house in Deane, officers found fake goods including watches, clothing, football shirts and videogames, all of which had been imported from the Far East. The teenager and his parents are thought to have been importing pirate videogame discs and boxes separately, putting them together in his bedroom and then selling them on internet auction site, eBay.
It is believed that thousands of pounds were found in the boy’s eBay account.
Bolton Trading Standards were given a tip-off about the operation from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa), which is working to smash the illegal trading of counterfeit goods.
The operation was carried out under the provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1994 which criminalises product counterfeiting. The maximum penalty on conviction is 10 years imprisonment and a £5,000 fine.
All counterfeit items seized will be forfeited through the courts.
Elspa represents the interests of the UK computer and video games publishers. Anyone with any information on computer and video games counterfeiting should contact the police, their local Trading Standards Office or call the Elspa anti piracy unit hotline on 08705 133405.
