Latest News and Blog Updates

Avoid Bad Hair Days…Avoid Counterfeit Hair Stylers!

Posted by admin In Of Interest to the Girls 0 comment

Bad hair day

Dictionary.com informs us

coun·ter·feit [koun-ter-fit] adjective

1. made in imitation so as to be passed off fraudulently or deceptively as genuine; not genuine; forged: counterfeit dollar bills.

2. pretended; unreal: counterfeit grief.

I like the fact that this mentions grief. It is so true!

So I’m suggesting, please look further than the quality and cost. Think about how dangerous the item can be. Don’t believe it will be made to any safety standard, that it will have undertaken any testing or will come with any genuine warranty. Are you prepared to take the chance it won’t overheat your hair or cause it to fall out?

A few simple steps –

Have a look on the internet – so many of the genuine registered trademarked companies have articles on their websites informing you how to spot a fake and how to check with them whether your item is genuine. I’m thinking GHD, StraightFix, Paul Mitchell hair products to name a few see the links below.

https://www.straightfix.com/pages/counterfeits

http://www.ghdhair.com/help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqLDEA5MWoE

DON’T ACCEPT COUNTERFEITS

If you have bought a fake – report it to Trading Standards or Crimestoppers.

The bottom line is if something sounds too good to be true it probably is, remember if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. We at Surelock represent lots of companies by helping them to reduce counterfeits-if we can’t help you maybe we know someone who can.

Increased Crackdown on Links to Counterfeiters’ Websites

Posted by admin In Counterfeit Clothing and Merchandise 0 comment

The government has stated that fakers account for 10 per cent of global trade and is to step up its crackdown on fake goods in the UK. A new report has revealed that clothing, tobacco and alcohol are the top products targeted by counterfeiters.

72 million website links were removed in the past year, up by 620% on a year ago, while the specialist City of London IP crime unit is investigating nearly £30m worth of IP crime in its first nine months. A number of large brands have taken matters in to their own hands and taken fakers to court including Burberry which won a £63m settlement in 2012 against fraudsters.

Surelock is playing its part on behalf of its clients by removing links on Facebook and EBay to websites selling fakes.

Exmouth Woman Who Sold Fake Cosmetics On eBay Spared Jail

Posted by admin In Counterfeit Clothing and Merchandise 0 comment

Deborah Hamber made £24,720 between July 2012 and February 2013

A woman has been spared prison after admitting selling thousands of pounds worth of fake cosmetics on eBay.

Tests on a tube of mascara being sold by Deborah Hamber from her home contained twice the permitted level of lead, Exeter Crown Court heard.

Hamber, 41, from Exmouth in Devon, admitted seven trading offences.

She was given a four month sentence, suspended for a year, and ordered to do 150 hours of community service.

Hamber had 900 fake cosmetics items at her home when it was raided

‘Safety issues’

High Court bailiff Hamber had 900 fake cosmetics items at her home when it was raided by trading standards officers, the court heard.

Hamber had wanted to boost her income and started selling fake MAC, Bare Essentials, Urban Decay and Lancome cosmetics from China.

The goods were sold for half the usual price and she made £24,720 between July 2012 and February 2013 from the trading.

Rosie Rowe, of Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Service, said: “Clearly there are safety issues with stuff like mascara and we aim to create a level playing field.

“If you have someone importing these from China you don’t have that.”

The court also ordered forfeiture and destruction of the seized goods and a confiscation investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for the trading standards service, said: “This sort of activity hurts local retailers of legitimate goods as well as the brand holders.

“It can also mean substandard and shoddy goods are imported – and in the case of cosmetics, dangerous ones with high levels of toxins.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-27620030

Clarity Issued by the FCA on Process Serving

Posted by admin In ABI 0 comment

abilogo-new-4 Following representation by the Association of British investigators (ABI) the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has reviewed the licensing requirement under the Consumer Credit Act for the activity of ‘Pure Process Serving’ and issued the following guidelines:

‘Pure Process Serving’ is meant that: –

The firm (a process server) is instructed by a law firm, or in-house solicitor, to serve legal documents on the recipient as part of the pre-court legal process.

The firm will serve a variety of different types of documents (e.g. County Court or High Court Claim Forms, Bankruptcy Petitions, Statutory Demands, Court Orders and Applications), some of which may relate to debts due under credit agreements, but many of which may not.

The firm will be aware of the legal nature of the document, but will not be told about or investigate the cause of action or the underlying circumstances. For example, the firm may not be aware whether the claim is for a consumer credit debt or a different type of debt.

The firm will take steps to ensure that the recipient understands the legal nature of the document and the fact that it is part of a legal process (e.g. that it is a Claim Form), but will not engage in any discussion or negotiation with the recipient about the contents of the document or the substance of the action.

If the recipient initiates discussion, the firm will direct the recipient to the law firm or in-house solicitor, which instructed the firm. ‘Pure Process Servers’ will not serve other documents such as CCA default notices

The FCA agrees that where in England a firm is instructed to undertake ‘Pure Process Serving’, the firm should not be regarded as being engaged in ‘debt collecting’ i.e. taking steps to procure the payment of a debt due under a credit agreement (or a relevant A36H agreement) or a consumer hire agreement. Thus the FCA is of the view that firms engaged in this (and not doing any other activity which might constitute debt collecting or debt administration) do not need authorisation and the FCA intends to operate on that basis pending amendment to the Perimeter Guidance (PERG) in the FCA Handbook, following consultation.

However, the FCA stresses that this is a question of interpretation of legislation, which ultimately is for the courts to decide, and the FCA cannot rule out the possibility that a court might decide on the facts that a ‘Pure Process Server’ is in fact engaged in regulated activity.

Mark Hodgson, Vice President of the ABI said ‘I am extremely grateful to the FCA for the manner in which it engaged in dialogue, listened to the concerns of our members and have now provided the industry with clear guidelines.’

Private Investigator Hit With £89,000 Penalty

Posted by admin In General 0 comment

A man who ran a company that tricked organisations into revealing personal details about customers has today been ordered to pay a total of £20,000 in fines and prosecution costs, as well as a confiscation order of over £69,000 at a hearing at Isleworth Crown Court.

Barry Spencer, 42, ran ICU Investigations Limited in Feltham, Middlesex with Adrian Stanton, 40. The pair were convicted at an earlier trial at Isleworth Crown Court on 20 November 2013. On the 24 January 2014, Stanton and five other employees of ICU Investigations Limited were fined a total of £18,500 and ordered to pay £15,607 prosecution costs.

Barry Spencer, who had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit offences under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act, has today been ordered to pay a £12,000 fine and £8,000 towards prosecution costs. A confiscation order of £69,327.32 was made under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Spencer faces a period of 20 months imprisonment should the confiscation order not be paid. He has also been disqualified from being a director for eight years.

The company ICU Investigations Ltd was also found guilty as a separate defendant and ordered to pay a nominal £100 fine.

ICO Head of Enforcement Stephen Eckersley said:

“This fine and confiscation order is not only a justified punishment for Mr Spencer, but also a powerful deterrent to anyone thinking they can profit from illegally blagging personal data.

“People have the right to have their personal data kept securely. The Information Commissioner’s Office will do everything in its power to bring unscrupulous private investigators, such as ICU Investigations Ltd, to justice, including pursuing confiscation where appropriate to remove the benefit made by offenders from their offending.”

ICU Investigations Ltd worked on behalf of clients to trace individuals, primarily for the purpose of debt recovery. The company had routinely tricked organisations including utility companies, GP surgeries and TV Licensing into revealing personal data, often by claiming to be the individuals they were trying to trace. Clients included Allianz Insurance PLC, Leeds Building Society and Dee Valley Water. An ICO investigation estimated there were nearly 2,000 separate offences between 1 April 2009 to 12 May 2010. However the ICO found no evidence of criminality by any organisation that employed ICU Investigations Ltd as the information requested could typically have been obtained legitimately.

Unlawfully obtaining or accessing personal data is a criminal offence under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998. The offence is punishable by way of ‘fine only’ – up to £5,000 in a Magistrates Court or an unlimited fine in a Crown Court. The Proceeds of Crime Act provides for the recovery of the proceeds of crime.

The ICO was aided in their investigation by TITAN, the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit and the Regional Recovery Asset Team (RART).

http://ico.org.uk/news/latest_news/2014/private-investigator-hit-with-89000-penalty-25042014

Designer Clothes Counterfeiters Jailed

Posted by admin In Counterfeit Clothing and Merchandise 0 comment

Two brothers and their father have been jailed for their parts in manufacturing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of fake designer garments.

Kully Screen Printing Ltd, in Galby Street, Spinney Hills, Leicester, was described as a “large-scale, highly sophisticated and a professional operation”.

At Leicester Crown Court, director Kuldip Singh (26), the “principal offender”, was sentenced to 23 months and banned from holding a company directorship for five years.

His father, Shinderpal Singh (56), and brother, Sarbjit Singh (24), were each jailed for 11 months.

All three, of The Circle, Crown Hills, Leicester, admitted offences under the 1994 Trade Mark Act, between October 2010 and August 2011.

The factory has since been destroyed in a fire.

Naomi Gilchrist, prosecuting for Leicester City Council trading standards, said: “The business was a front, behind which was a highly fraudulent counterfeiting operation.”

She said more than 100,000 fake T-shirts, hooded tops and tracksuit bottoms were seized, bearing 27 brand names including Adidas, Nike, Hugo Boss, Lacoste and Diesel.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Pert QC said: “It was a large-scale enterprise deliberately being carried on as a wholly fraudulent exercise.

“It involved the production of goods worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

Shinderpal previously ran the business legitimately but, when it failed to make a profit, passed it over to Kuldip in early 2010.

By the following October, it was mainly producing counterfeit garments.

Judge Pert said: “Shinderpal Singh continued to work in the factory and was also called upon because of his expertise. Sarbjit Singh is the least involved, although knew what was going on.”

Trading standards called at the factory in August 2011.

Sarbjit – who was minding the premises while his brother and father were in India – refused to allow an inspection.

The business had not submitted any accounts and he hid incriminating paperwork in a hole in the ceiling.

He drove away a van of counterfeit clothes, before council officers obtained a warrant.

Nathan Rasiah, for Kuldip, said: “He got involved in a dodgy counterfeit operation, not motivated by greed but while trying to support the family.”

Philip Bown, for Sarbjit, said he earned “pin money” as a university student, cleaning the premises and did not produce any counterfeit goods.

Ian Halliday, for their father, said: “He’s embarrassed about the shame he’s brought upon his family.”

Afterwards, trading standards officer Ben Proctor said: “We are pleased with the sentence which reflects the gravity of what we came across in the factory very well.

“It’s still a problem nationally and Leicester is one of the hubs where it’s quite serious.”

Kuldip Singh admitted 26 offences under the Trade Mark Act, his father admitted 19 and his brother admitted 17.

Legal Aid Row Leads to Halting of Serious Fraud Trial

Posted by admin In General 0 comment

A judge has halted a serious fraud trial after defendants claimed they could not get adequate representation because of cuts to legal aid.

Alex Cameron QC – the prime minister’s brother, working free of charge on the bid to halt the case – said the defendants would not get a fair trial.

The Ministry of Justice said there were “suitably qualified” lawyers available.

Many barristers in England and Wales are refusing to take on complex cases because of 30% cuts to their fees.

Judge Anthony Leonard told Southwark Crown Court that the defence had made “very substantial… but unsuccessful” efforts to find barristers to fight the defendants’ case.

It would be a “violation” of the legal process to allow the case to proceed, he added.

Contracts terminated

The case was brought last year by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) against Scott Crawley and seven other men.

It concerned the activities of Plott UK Ltd, European Property Investments Ltd and Stirling Alexander Ltd.

The companies are believed to have taken more than £5m from UK investors between 2008 and 2011, the FCA said at the time.

Outside court, one of the defendant’s lawyers said the collapse of the trial should be a “wake-up call” to ministers.

“It is in the interests of justice for both sides that serious and complex cases of this sort should be properly prosecuted and properly tried,” said solicitor Philip Smith.

“That means with equality of arms whereby you have the best barristers on both sides.”

He said the involvement of the prime minister’s brother had been “absolutely pivotal” in persuading the judge he could stop the trial.

Arguing on Monday that the case against five defendants should not go ahead, Mr Cameron said: “A stay is exceptional, but so is lack of representation in this country. We are worried about a fair trial.

“It’s not the fault of the FCA but we do [blame] the state more widely.”

BBC News website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27238201

Bank of England to Withdraw £50 Houblon Note from Circulation

Posted by admin In Fraud 0 comment

The £50 note which features a portrait of Sir John Houblon is to be withdrawn from circulation on 30th May 2014.

The Bank of England estimates that there are still 53 million of the notes in circulation, amounting to a value of £2.65bn.

Members of the public or business people who use the Houblon £50 notes are being urged to exchange them or deposit them at banks.

Barclays, NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank and the Post Office have all agreed to exchange Houblon £50 notes for members of the public up to the value of £200 until 30 October 2014.

From May onwards, shops are unlikely to accept the older notes as payment. But the £50 banknote featuring Matthew Boulton and James Watt, introduced in 2011, will still be legal.

Victoria Cleland, head of the notes division at the Bank of England, says the 2011 notes have the better security features that the Houblon versions.

“We’d expect a lot to be out there,” she said. “There was an increase in demand for fifties during the financial crisis”.

The withdrawal of the note forms part of the Bank’s crackdown on fraud. The Boulton and Watt notes were the first to feature a green ‘motion thread’, with five windows featuring the pound symbol and the number 50, which moves when titled from side to side.

A new £10 note bearing a portrait of Jane Austen, to be introduced in 2017, will also use the latest security features.

Sir John Houlbon was the first governor of the Bank of England. The banknote bearing his portrait was first issued in 1994 as part of the Bank’s 300 anniversary celebrations.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/bank-of-england-to-withdraw-the-houblon-50-note-in-fraud-crackdown-9295816.html

2,500 Websites Shut Down in Counterfeit Goods Crackdown

Posted by admin In Counterfeit Clothing and Merchandise 0 comment

A specialist police unit has shut down more than 2,500 websites selling counterfeit goods believed to be worth tens of millions of pounds.

The sites promised authentic designer goods such as Gucci products, GHD hair straighteners, Ugg boots and Hollister clothing. But customers were left short-changed as the items were either poor quality counterfeits or were never delivered.

The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (Pipcu) was launched by City of London police last September and the number of websites suspended by the unit was announced to coincide with World Intellectual Property Day.

DCI Andy Fyfe, head of Pipcu, said: “The fact Pipcu can announce on World IP Day that in the eight months since launching we have suspended more than 2,500 infringing websites is further evidence of the expertise of our officers and the level of their commitment to clamp down on IP crime. Behind many of these websites lies an organised crime gang funnelling off the money spent by unsuspecting customers on what they think are quality products.

“Consumers also need to be aware that by accessing websites like this they are running the risk of their personal details being compromised and being used for other fraudulent scams, as well as exposing their computer to malicious malware.”

Clare Harvell, 42, from Cheshire, was a victim of counterfeit fraud from one of the websites the unit has now suspended. She ordered a pair of UGG boots as a Christmas present for her daughter after clicking on a site that was “listed at the top” of a Google search.

The site had “high quality images”, she said, and it “looked and sounded legitimate”. But when the boots arrived she was disappointed. “They looked really cheap. In fact the seller had valued them on packaging as only being worth £17, when in fact I had paid over £70 for them. They were wrapped in cardboard and weren’t even in a box,” she said.

Harvell was able to claim a refund from her credit card company, but she said the issue was ongoing as the website owner had tried to use her card details again.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/28/counterfeit-goods-crackdown-websites-shut-down-pipcu

Enfield Company Director Found Guilty of Selling Counterfeits

Posted by admin In Counterfeit Clothing and Merchandise 0 comment

The director of a private company has been found guilty of selling high class counterfeit clothing.

Kabamba Tabukanga, director of Gramadi Place Limited in Hoe Lane, Enfield, pleaded guilty to 16 charges of selling counterfeit goods.

For each charge he was fined £1,5000 with each offence running concurrently. The 53-year-old was also ordered to pay a contribution to Trading Standards, costs of £1,300 and a victim surcharge of £150. The trading included good such as Chanel, Burberry, Giorgio Armani, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Vivienne Westwood, Gucci, Dior and Dolce & Gabbana between January 9 and March 21, 2013.

Andrea Clemons, assistant director for community safety and environment for Enfield Borough Council said “Selling counterfeit goods of any kind misleads the public and steals the integrity of well-developed brands.

“Often counterfeit goods are made from inferior materials and the workmanship is of poor quality. This case is a strong warning that our trading standards officers will seize counterfeit goods and prosecute.”

The council had made several warnings to the private limited company for three previous incident of counterfeit clothes and jewellery at the Enfield base.

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/NEWS/11164595.Director_guilty_of_selling_counterfeit_designer_clothes/

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