Trademark and Rights Holders Against Piracy (TRAP) and its partner Surelock was heavily involved recently in the largest counterfeiting case ever undertaken by West Yorkshire Trading Standards.
Five members of an extended family – Amar, Yasir, Qaisar and Faisal Choudry of Bradford and their brother-in-law Mudasar Alishan – were found to have benefited from a criminal enterprise during a recent hearing at Bradford Crown Court.
Pursuant to powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Judge Colin Burn ordered the family to pay confiscation orders totalling £1,513,163.49 which represented the total of their available assets. Payment must be made within three months or the defendants will face jail sentences.
The case was brought by West Yorkshire Trading Standards after a two-year investigation, working with TRAP and Surelock. Together they conducted a raid on the defendants’ industrial-scale screen printing operation in which the registered trademarks of leading music artists, bands and sports teams were being illegally printed onto clothing and distributed globally via a number of accounts on eBay and Amazon.
The trademarks breached a number of TRAP artists including Arctic Monkeys, The 1975, Motorhead, Ramones, Beyonce, 5 Seconds of Summer, Harry Potter, Ed Sheeran and Nirvana among others.
His Honour Judge Burn described the offending as a “well organised fraud with the backing of a legitimate company” and commended the two investigating officers for their efforts in investigating the complex case.
“The trade in counterfeit goods is not a victimless crime – it impacts directly on UK jobs and the high street. This service will continue to bring to justice those individuals seeking to benefit from the theft of intellectual property,” commented David Lodge, head of Trading Standards.
TRAP’s Trevor Jones added: “It can take a huge amount of investigative resources to bring these cases. The team of TRAP investigators at Surelock have done another great job. They continue to be dedicated to tracking offenders down wherever they may be operating.”
TRAP is an industry body with members which are owners or exclusive licensees in respect of merchandise rights for the music industry. Members include Bravado, Danilo, Ecell Global, GB eye, Global Merchandising Services, Live Nation Merchandise, Pyramid, Probity, Razamataz, Rock Off, Sandbag and Warner Music Group.
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