A West London shop has been fined more than £15,000 for trying to sell fake designer face masks. The luxury masks with bogus logos were seized from e-cigarette wholesaler King of Vapes in Southall.
Ealing Council confiscated the masks with fake logos trying to pass them off as from top brands Burberry, Gucci, Adidas, Versace, Nike, Superdry and Unilever. Yark London Limited, which owns King of Vapes, was fined £15,232 in court.
Appearing at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court, Yark London owner Ulgeet Singh pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to 10 charges of possessing goods with a false trademark with the intention to sell. Singh also pleaded guilty on the company’s behalf to three counts of breaching safety by stocking and selling incorrectly labelled bottles of hand sanitiser.
The council raised concerns that because the hand sanitiser was incorrectly labelled, the shop could not guarantee it was safe for use on human skin. The fake designer masks and unlabelled hand sanitiser were discovered during a council inspection in August 2020 following a tip-off by Trading Standards officers.
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The court heard how the fake masks were discovered in black bin bags and seized after council officers used their “common sense” to determine they were fake. Ealing Council contacted each designer brand who confirmed the masks were bogus.
Only Adidas and Versace said they made face masks and said the seized masks would be worth £250 and £15,000 respectively if they had been genuine. None of the masks had been sold to the public, although some of the hand sanitisers had been.
The fake Adidas masks confiscated by Ealing Council
Speaking on Mr Singh’s behalf, defence barrister Chloe Hucker said: “Mr Singh accepts he has made a complete mistake and apologies for that, but the pandemic hit and suddenly face masks and hand sanitiser were goods people wanted to buy.
“He accepts he took an opportunity he should not have done and saw these items as desirable. He accepts that he has fundamentally made a mistake in doing so. Mr Singh has learnt his lesson.”
The incorrectly labelled bottles of hand sanitiser displayed on the shop’s shelves before they were seized
Ealing Council lead for decent living incomes Bassam Mahfouz said: “This case proves that where’s there’s money to be made, some unscrupulous traders will stop at nothing and put consumers’ lives at risk by selling products that are counterfeit and of inferior quality.
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“The majority of retailers in Ealing are law-abiding traders, but there are those who believe they can make easy money by selling fake goods that have not been subjected to rigorous safety tests.
“We will do all within our means to unmask these reckless, rogue traders who continue to sell counterfeit and illegally imported products.”
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