Student sold £85,000 worth of fake badges
AMEDICAL student who sold £85,000 worth of counterfeit car wheel badge caps bought from China has avoided jail.
Raees Usman, from Haslingden, bought branded caps for 60p using his mother’s eBay account before selling them on for a profit.
More than 5,600 transactions were made over a three-year period and the counterfeit badge caps included Jaguar, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Land Rover and Ford, Burnley Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Jack Troup said Lancashire County Council Trading Standards were alerted to Usman’s activities after receiving a complaint in October 2016.
Officer Julie Mullen bought four BMW
branded wheel centre caps for £5.59 as a ‘test purchase’, and sent them off to BMW who confirmed they were counterfeit.
Police and Trading Standards officers executed a warrant at Usman’s Blackburn Road home in March 2017 and seized 377 Ford, 297 Jaguar, 77 BMW, 58 Audi, 47 Porsche and one Land Rover badge caps.
Thirty-five of the caps were found inside padded envelopes addressed to customers, and others were found in a garden shed.
The court was told that samples were sent off to various trademark holders for inspection and confirmed as counterfeit.
Usman and his mother were interviewed by Trading Standards officers in June 2017 and the defendant made ‘ frank admissions’.
Mr Troup told the court
that Usman accepted running the eBay account for between two and three years.
The court was told that a total of 5,638 transactions were made resulting in the loss of up to £84,570 for the trademark holders.
Raees Usman, 23, pleaded guilty to six Trade Marks Act offences.
He was given a 12-month community order with 200 hours unpaid work and a threemonth curfew requirement.
A Proceeds of Crime hearing will take place in March.
Sentencing, Recorder Christopher Hudson said: “This is a serious matter.
“There was almost £37,000 going through the account.
“If I thought this was a professional operation I would have had no qualms whatsoever in sending you to prison.
“You are 23, so not that young. You are intelligent and hard working so you are not that foolish.”