Business information

Nurse sentenced for selling fake goods at market

A qualified nurse who spent her Saturdays at Bovingdon Market selling counterfeit films and games received a six-month suspended prison sentence after a prosecution brought by Hertfordshire Trading Standards.

Louise Taylor, 32 of Bardolph Road, Islington, London, was also sentenced to 40 hours of unpaid community work by Judge Alan Warner at St Albans Crown Court on December 19.

Judge Warner warned that the offence crossed the custody threshold, but suspended the sentence as he felt Taylor could make a valuable contribution to society as a qualified nurse.

Taylor was found guilty of distributing films and software that infringed the rights of the copyright holders between May and November 2005 at Bovingdon Market.

Hertfordshire Trading Standards made 12 test purchases of fakes from the stall that Taylor operated with another stallholder.

When Taylor's stall was raided, Trading Standards officers found 780 fake DVDs. A further 286 were found at her father’s house, 310 at her mother’s and 297 films and 85 games at her own address. Computers used to make fake packaging were also seized.

Judge Warner told her: “If you were not involved in the production you were very close to the source of production for the items sold on your stall. The seriousness of the offences attract a custodial sentence even for those of previous good character."

However, Taylor was acting under the influence of her co-defendant, Chris Constantine, and escaped immediate imprisonment. The six month sentence was suspended for two years.

“This has been part of a long and complex case associated with prolonged illegal activities at Bovingdon Market and we hope that this sentence will further emphasise the seriousness of the offences and the scale of the activities in question,” said County Councillor Richard Smith, Executive Member for Community Safety.

“The sale of counterfeit goods is known to be linked to more serious and organised crime and, as we have said on many previous occasions, we are simply not going to tolerate it in Hertfordshire.

“Once again, we would like to urge consumers to help combat this illegal trade by only buying from reputable outlets and querying branded products which seem unrealistically cheap. Similarly, we would remind traders that they are obliged to verify the authenticity of any goods before they purchase them to sell on.”

The case against Taylor was part of a bigger operation mounted by Hertfordshire Trading Standards in November 2005. Five defendants pleaded guilty and five pleaded not guilty, including Taylor, but all were convicted on July 24 this year.

Sentences previously imposed in the case were:

Alan Birmingham, 48 of Castle Road, Bedford - sentenced to 10 months imprisonment;

Ricci Jones, 39, of Dylan Court, Houghton Regis, Beds - sentenced to 80 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £750 towards prosecution costs;

Gareth Richards, 27, of Lower End Road, Milton Keynes, Bucks - fined £750 and ordered to pay £1,500 towards prosecution costs;

John Granger, 57, of Holt Road, Romford, Essex - fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £2,500 towards prosecution costs.

All stallholders had their illicit goods forfeited, which included large numbers of clothing, films, software and CDs as well as money, computers, duplicating equipment and printers.