A high street shop has been convicted for selling fake designer clothes including knock-off Superdry and Calvin Klein items.
Hardial Singh, company director of Pure Image, pleaded guilty at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court to four charges under the Trademarks Act 1994 relating to the sale and possession for sale of counterfeit items.
The retailer was fined £4,000 for selling the fake designer label clothes following the charges brought by the council’s trading standards service.
The court heard how officers carried out a test purchase of two t-shirts on sale at the store on High Street, Merthyr Tydfil, with the logos ‘Calvin’ and ‘Superdry’. On examination, they were identified as counterfeit.
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Officers carried out a further inspection of the store, and 69 ‘Calvin Klein’ and 304 ‘Tik Tok’ items of clothing were seized. The items were subsequently examined by the bona fide Superdry, Calvin Klein and Tik Tok labels, and confirmed as counterfeit and in breach of the businesses’ registered trade marks.
Pure Image Fashions Ltd was ordered to pay £4,000 in fines, £592 in costs and a £190 victim surcharge. Credit was given for an early guilty plea.
Trading Standards team leader Craig Rushton said: “The sale of counterfeit products threatens law abiding businesses and citizens on many levels - retailers face unfair competition and consumers get a bad deal and an inferior product.”
Merthyr Tydfil's cabinet member for regeneration and public protection, councillor Geraint Thomas said: “I applaud the work of our trading standards team. It’s important to support Merthyr Tydfil’s hard working business community from unfair competition, and to protect consumers from spending their hard-earned cash on low quality fake goods.”
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