Buckinghamshire & Surrey Trading Standards officers raided Kempton Market last week (Thursday 7th September) in a bid to stop the sale of counterfeit and unsafe products.
The operation, planned and conducted with partners from the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, The Intellectual Property Office, the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit and Surrey Police, was in response to multiple reports of fake and unsafe goods being sold at the market. The aim was to protect the public and legitimate traders by seizing fake goods and causing a high level of disruption to rogue sellers.
This proved to be the case, with officers seizing a number of suspected counterfeit trainers and unsafe vapes, and only a fraction of the typical 200 plus sellers remaining at the market by the end of the raid, meaning a clear message was sent to those selling fakes and unsafe goods that their illegal trading practice will not be tolerated.
Preventing the sale of fake goods is a high priority for Trading Standards officers, as research shows buying fake goods:
- Contributes to 80,500 job losses every year in the UK, resulting in innocent people losing their jobs.
- Contributes £9 billion annual loss to the UK economy.
- Impacts workers’ rights around the world.
- Is linked to organised crime groups, including those complicit in human trafficking, child sexual exploitation and prostitution.
Denise Turner-Stewart, Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Communities and Community Safety said: “This was vital work by Trading Standards officers and partners, and an emphatic message to fraudsters that we will clamp down on their illegal trading practices.
“We know how damaging fake goods can be, and the harm and distress it can cause residents and consumers. I hope this goes some way to reassuring the local community and reaffirms our firm commitment as a council to protecting our residents and keeping them safe.
“To that end we will continue to respond robustly to this increasing activity of the sale of unsafe and counterfeit goods in our communities. But we urge residents to be vigilant too – if you have any suspicions, you can contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service via their website.
“I’d like to thank our Trading Standards officers and our partners for their diligent work on this.”
Phil Lewis, ACG Director General said: “The Anti-Counterfeiting Group congratulates Buckinghamshire & Surrey Trading Standards authorities for their recent actions to rid the sale of counterfeit and unsafe products from Kempton Market in Surrey. With support provided by ACG members TS and Police Officers disrupted the market and prevented the sale of thousands of bogus goods.
“Fake products have become ever more dangerous and continuously damage local businesses and threaten jobs. Rogue sellers have no moral conscience and are willing to sell a wide range of products, including clothing and household goods that increasingly contain toxins and faulty components that threaten our families.
“ACG is fully committed to supporting Trading Standards across the UK to protect communities and deny criminals of profits that are used to feed other menacing forms of illicit trade in weapons and drugs. In this respect the work carried out by Buckinghamshire & Surrey Trading Standards is hugely important.”
Marcus Evans, the Intellectual Property Office’s Deputy Director of Intelligence and Law Enforcement, said: “Criminals are seeking to exploit consumers and communities for their own financial gain by targeting them with illegal counterfeit products – with little or no regard for their quality or safety.
“This is anything but a victimless crime, diverting funds away from legitimate traders and into the hands of criminals. This helps to sustain criminal lifestyles, as well as causing genuine harms to those workers often exploited during their production.
“We welcome the actions taken to bring those involved in this type of criminality to justice, as we continue our work in partnership with industry and law enforcement to help protect the public and raise awareness of the damage counterfeits cause.”
If you want to report the sale of counterfeit or unsafe goods, you can do so via the Citizens Advice Consumer Service: Contact the consumer helpline – Citizens Advice
For more information on fake goods, please visit: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/news-campaigns/campaigns/fake-goods
Surrey News 
Discussion
Comments are closed.