niceguyrichy

Members of a criminal network have been convicted of masterminding a global fake golf club scam on eBay.

The counterfeiting operation was the biggest of its kind to be investigated by a council trading standards team and the largest such conspiracy to be uncovered on the auction website, Havering Council said.

The defendants sold millions of pounds worth of fake golf clubs and other merchandise through the website between June 2003 and March 2008, a council spokesman said.

Officers identified more than 96,000 transactions of clubs and other equipment occurring during this period.
Four defendants were found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court of conspiring together to sell or distribute counterfeit golf clubs, clothing and accessories.
They were Roy Cottee, 65, and his 43-year-old wife Kay, of Rainham, Essex; Helen Wilson, 28, of Hertford, and Sharron Williams, 48, of West Wickham, Kent.
Three other defendants had already admitted various offences.

Gary Bellchambers, 45, of Rainham, who was at the heart of the conspiracy, had already pleaded guilty to his role, along with Keith Thomas, 49, from Rainham, and Chris Moughton, 56, from Blackpool.
Bellchambers also admitted the unauthorised use of trademarks, which related to counterfeit Qantas complimentary lounge cards and Sony memory sticks.
Most of the fake goods were manufactured at factories in Shenzhen, China and shipped to the various defendants' addresses in the UK.
All the convicted defendants except Wilson travelled to Thailand.

From Thailand, or their homes in the UK, they arranged for the fake goods to be sent to eBay customers in Ireland, Australia, the US, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Brazil and New Zealand.

The downfall of the operation was brought about when pensioner Christine Manz complained to trading standards officers after she had tried to get a refund for two clubs.
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read more/source: Telegraph

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iPlayer

However did they manage to stay in business that long.

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