Counterfeit items destroyed following court ruling

The Customs Department this week destroyed over 500 cartons of shoes following a court ruling on the counterfeit items previously it had previously seized.

“The department has had a record breaking year in the IPR field, making headlines around the world and receiving the GAC award for their hard work tackling the counterfeit market.

“Although having a small population and understandably a small Customs Department, the Department managed to target and seize several shipments of counterfeit goods transiting through our border, which not only pose a serious health risk to end consumers due to the materials and chemicals used, but also put jobs at risk, and promote child labor among others,” the department said in a statement.

“This year alone the department seized; 96,306 pairs of shoes, 4,800 mobile phone covers, 1,697 auto parts, 10.5 million cigarettes, 7,670 wrist watches and 23,550 tracksuit bottoms.

“The department said it is investing heavily in the Container Scanning Unit, which is located in the Freeport Terminal. A new state of the art container scanner is to arrive next month and will be installed in a newly built scanning section.

“This scanning bay will not only give better resources to the Customs Department, but will facilitate flow which in turn will allow a steady and rapid flow through Customs,” the department said.