Car booter "tagged" in counterfeit case

9 October 2008

A trader has been electronically tagged as part of his sentence, after being convicted of selling counterfeit goods in a case brought by Bedfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service.

Andrew Thornton of Thrales Close, Luton, pleaded guilty to six charges of the sale of counterfeit CDs, DVDs and items of clothing on Wednesday, 1 October 2008.

The court heard that trading standards officers had visited the Lidlington car boot sale in July 2007 where they had found Mr. Thornton selling a range of counterfeit CDs and items of clothing. Following this, the officers re-visited the sale the following weekend, but on this occasion Mr. Thornton ran away. He was later arrested by police officers in September 2007, where they seized his stock of counterfeit goods, in addition to his Vauxhall Vectra car.

Cllr Peter Hollick, Bedfordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “Here is a case of a man who thought he could ignore the law and continue to profit through dealing in counterfeit goods. Not only does he now have a suspended prison sentence hanging over his head, but he has also lost his car and now faces the prospect of having to pay over £2000 in costs - as well as being electronically tagged for three months.

“Our trading standards officers have considerable success in prosecuting this sort of crime and this goes some way to achieving our vision of a counterfeit-free county.”

ENDS