Hamilton Mobile phone crook faces assets grab

Jun 5 2008 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

A MAN convicted of selling fake mobile phones from his Hamilton flat was this week facing further legal action.

A £7000 confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act was granted against 47-year-old Robert Prentice.

It gives the Crown the right to seize from him assets up to that amount.

South Lanarkshire Council consumer and trading standards service, in conjunction with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, were granted the order at Hamilton Sheriff Court this week.

In 2004, trading standards officers and police, along with trade mark representatives from mobile phone company Nokia, raided Prentice’s home at the Furlongs.

The trading standards team seized almost 3000 items from the flat.

At the Sheriff Court in February last year, Prentice pleaded guilty to being in possession of more than 1600 fake Nokia items with a street value of several thousand pounds.

He also admitted selling counterfeit Nokia branded items through his business Active Mobiles.com Limited, now dissolved.

He was convicted under the Trade Marks Act 1994 and fined £450.

However, as crimes under the Trade Marks Act 1994 are classed as ‘lifestyle offences’, the Crown Office then mounted a further investigation in a bid to quantify the benefits to Prentice of the proceeds of his crime.

On Monday, the Sheriff Court accepted that Prentice had indeed benefited from the criminal offences he had committed and a confiscation order amounting to £7000 was granted.

Prentice has been given five months to pay and his assets will remain frozen until full redress has been made.

Council trading standards manager Peter Sherry said: “This case has illustrated how the internet is making it possible for counterfeit operations to be run from the home just as well as from commercial premises.

“I would urge anyone who has suspicions about an individual carrying out counterfeiting operations from their home address in South Lanarkshire to help us crackdown on an illegal and damaging trade.

“We will continue to use current legislation to ensure that counterfeiters should not benefit from their illegal trade.”