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Fake DVD market trader ordered to hand back £40,000
A TRADER selling dodgy DVDs and CDs at Whittlesey market will have £40,000 clawed back from his ill-gotten gains.
A TRADER selling dodgy DVDs and CDs at Whittlesey market will have 40,000 clawed back from his ill-gotten gains.In the first and largest case of its kind for Cambridgeshire Trading Standards, a court has ordered Michael Wilding to pay up, or face going to prison.
Wilding (53) used to sell the fake discs at Whittlesey market, but was caught after police stopped his car in the town's Station Road. He had 260 DVDs and 236 CDs in his possession, worth more than 6,000.
He told Cambridge Crown Court he had made very little profit from selling the goods.
But trading standards officers from Cambridgeshire County Council had ploughed through financial and business records, after successfully applying for a Proceeds of Crime Act order, allowing investigators access to Wilding's bank details.
Judge John Haworth agreed with them that Wilding was hiding assets and money he had made from his illegal activities.
And at Cambridge Crown Court, the judge ordered Wilding to pay the 41,726.70, or face being sent to jail.
The court was told Wilding had received cautions for selling the fake goods before, but had continued to trade. He had been convicted at Boston Magistrates' Court in 2002 on 12 charges under the Trademarks Act, and at the same court on November 8, 2004 for similar offences that took place in 2003.
In April, Wilding, of Beacon Park Drive, Skegness, pleaded guilty at Cambridge Crown Court to nine sample charges of possessing counterfeit goods for sale.
The court also sentenced him to nine months in prison for each charge to run concurrently, but suspended the sentence for 18 months. He was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service in the next 12 months and to live at his mother's address for that time.
The money will go to the government with a percentage being passed on to Cambridgeshire Trading Standards and partner agencies, such as the police.
Head of investigations for The county council's Trading Standards Stewart Aitken said: "We want to make it very clear to counterfeit traders out there that we will prosecute and we will look to have assets seized that you have made through crime.
"This could mean losing your house, your car and savings.
"We do not tolerate criminals preying on Cambridgeshire residents to turn a fast buck and line their pockets while legitimate companies who pay their taxes are put out of business."
In August this year, police swooped on a pirate DVD factory, discovering 30,000 of fake DVDs and another 6,000 of blank discs to be used to make more fake goods.
The factory was based in a flat in Ravensthorpe, Peterborough, and the raid included many blockbuster films that had not yet been released in the cinema.
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