An Indian-origin woman has pleaded guilty in a UK court to running a fake designer clothes factory in the city of Leicester. Tarsem Kaur pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court last week to 15 counts of counterfeiting under the UK Trade Marks Act.
The 46-year-old had been arrested following a raid in 2015 and officers found 6,143 counterfeit labels and tags for clothing, as well as 894 completed garments.
The factory in Spinney Hills area of Leicester had counterfeit goods with labeling of famous brands like Adidas and Nike and an estimated street value of 150,000 pounds, ‘Leicester Mercury’ reports.
Tarsem, along with a 60-year-old accomplice Altaf Sattar, was spared jail time when a judge handed them 12-month suspended sentences which would be activated if they broke strict rules.
“We would have liked to see a stronger sentence imposed in this case, to send the message out to other counterfeiters that this sort of crime will not be tolerated. Our Trading Standards team will continue to work closely with the police to crack down on such illegal operations and protect the interests of consumers and legitimate businesses across the city,” Councillor Sue Waddington, Leicester’s assistant city mayor for jobs and skills, told the newspaper.
The court was told that the counterfeit clothing was being sold at markets elsewhere in the UK.
