Business information

Ten Months’ Imprisonment for counterfeit goods market trader

A Bovingdon Market stallholder charged with producing and selling counterfeit DVDs and CDs received a ten-month custodial sentence from St Albans Crown Court on Friday (September 28)

Alan Birmingham, 48, and Karen Birmingham, 48, of Castle Road, Bedford had been found guilty of the offences in July as part of a landmark conviction secured by Hertfordshire Trading Standards against the market operator, two of its directors and seven stallholders.

The prosecution against Alan Birmingham was a joint effort between Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Trading Standards, with assistance from police forces in both counties, the Assets Recovery Agency, FACT and BPI.

Bedfordshire Trading Standards had seized duplicating equipment, disks and masters from Mr Birmingham’s premises in November 2005. Some days later, more than 1,700 counterfeit disks were discovered on the Birminghams’ stall at Bovingdon Market during an undercover purchasing operation by Hertfordshire Trading Standards. The Birminghams were arrested and counterfeit packaging and image files were found when their house was searched again.

Alan Birmingham made full admissions to manufacturing and selling counterfeit discs. However he had to wait the trial of the other stallholders and market operators before he was sentenced. He was prosecuted under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act and the Trade Marks Act.

In passing three concurrent sentences of 10 months’ imprisonment the judge commented that it was so serious only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate. He said that Alan Birmingham had produced large numbers of counterfeit discs to sell at market stalls and had persisted even after goods had been seized from him at a market and his home.

“This has been part of a long and complex case associated with prolonged illegal activities at Bovingdon Market and we hope that this custodial sentence will help to underscore the seriousness of the offences and the scale of the activities in question,” said Executive Member for Community Safety and Culture, Keith Emsall. “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 simply by buying only 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.”

Sentencing for Karen Birmingham has been adjourned pending confiscation proceedings by the Assets Recovery Agency. The assets recovery process can extend to forcing the sale of the homes of convicted criminals to recover money earned from their illegal activities.

Other stallholders involved in the Bovingdon Market prosecutions were sentenced last month. They were:

Ricci Jones, 38, of Dylan Court, Houghton Regis, Beds. Sentenced to 80 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £750 towards prosecution costs.
Gareth Richards, 26, 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, music CDs as well as money, computers, duplicating equipment and printers.