Family sentenced for selling fake goods online

Fake Apple, Samsung and Sky products were amongst those sold by the family

Four members of a Wolverhampton family have been sentenced for trying to sell counterfeit goods.

The illegal operation saw fake Apple, Samsung and Sky products, counterfeit Nike and Converse shoes and fake CND make-up offered for sale online, the City of Wolverhampton Council has said.

Majid Iqbal, Muhammad Iqbal, Hina Naz and Fatima Aamir, all of Akron Drive, in Oxley, had been found guilty of a range of conspiracy charges.

The Iqbal brothers were both sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday to two years and seven months in prison.

A Trading Standards investigation was launched after about 1,400 suspected counterfeit Sky remote controls addressed to Muhammad Iqbal were seized at a DHL depot in Telford in December 2017.

The brothers and their wives were found to be running six different limited companies and 11 eBay user accounts which marketed and sold more than 30,000 counterfeit goods.

Over the next two years, test purchases of counterfeit goods were made from eBay shops controlled by the defendants, the council said.

More than 4,300 items of fake and copyright infringing items were found in their homes and business premises in both Wolverhampton and London.

Some of the items seized by Trading Standards officers

During the search, officers found invoices and other documents which showed purchases from counterfeiters in China.

In October 2019, two parcels from Hong Kong were delivered to Fatima Aamir and Muhammad Iqbal's home.

One of the boxes contained 100 pairs of copyright infringing Apple products and the other contained bottles of counterfeit CND nail varnish and flat packed plastic and cardboard packaging for the counterfeit nail varnish.

Following a trial Majid Iqbal and Muhammad Iqbal were found guilty of:

• four charges of conspiracy to sell, offer or expose for sale or distribution goods bearing a sign identical to a registered trademark

• four charges of conspiracy to possess goods bearing a sign identical to a registered trademark, one charge of unauthorised possession of goods bearing a sign identical to a trademark

• one charge of conspiracy to market, design infringing articles and one of conspiracy to transfer and/or convert criminal property.

Hina Naz, wife of Majid Iqbal, was sentenced to 13 months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered to attend 10 rehabilitation activity days.

Fatima Aamir, wife of Muhammad Iqbal, was sentenced to 48 weeks in prison suspended for two years and must attend 20 rehabilitation activity days.

Both have been ordered to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work.