Clothes factory boss jailed for ripping off top designer labels
Multi-million pound operations smashed
ACROOK behind a multimillion pound fake clothes factory has been jailed for four years.
Inderjit Sangu ran an ‘industrial scale’ operation out of his unit in Hockley supplying markets around the country with knock-off items.
The 67-year-old ripped off luxury brands such as Moncler and Canada Goose which sell garments for hundreds of pounds each.
He also imitated a host of other big-name retailers including Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Versace, Prada, Givenchy, Lacoste, Nike and Adidas.
When Trading Standards officials raided his unit on Park Road they seized more than 40,000 fake labels, and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of clothing with the labels already fitted.
Sangu, of Coles Lane, West Bromwich, pleaded guilty to 26 trademark offences at Birmingham Crown Court and was sentenced to four years.
Recorder Benet Brandreth QC said: “This was a large-scale, professional operation affecting many brands. It is quite clear you were the guiding light and involved others.”
In 2019 officials intercepted two transport vehicles and seized dozens of boxes of counterfeit clothes, some of which were marked up as ‘Inderjit Birmingham’.
Messages from mobile phones which were analysed made reference to the Park Road address.
Trading Standards raided the Park Road unit in August 2019 and discovered the huge haul of fakes as well as three sewing loom machines.
Mark Jackson, prosecuting, calculated there were enough labels for £5 million worth of goods by attaching a ‘conservative’ average value to each one.
A warrant was also executed at Sangu’s former home in Sandwell Road, Handsworth.
Messages on his phone indicated he had been involved in shifting fakes since at least 2016.
Mr Jackson added: “This was a professional and well-organised operation. The profits would have been substantial. Counterfeits are a cash business.”
Jonathan Barker, defending, conceded there had been a ‘spectacular fall from grace’ for Sangu and said: “This man is a British citizen. He came over from India and for the majority of his life has worked tirelessly to support his family.
“For many years he was a legitimate businessman but like many others fell on hard times, and as a consequence got involved in counterfeit clothing. He did so to provide for his family.
“This is a man who resides in a semi-detached house in West Bromwich.
“He has a mortgage, he has debts. There are no large pools of money to draw upon, no foreign houses, no evidence of an extravagant lifestyle.”
The barrister also argued Sangu was ‘not competing’ with high street and designer outlet shops because he was supplying his fakes to market traders in ‘working class areas’.
He said: “Not for one second would a person buying a Canada Goose coat from a market stall have thought they were buying a genuine item. The goods were being produced so working class people had the opportunity of wearing the sort of branded clothes we are constantly bombarded with in adverts and social media.”