Blackburn brothers jailed for eBay fraud

5:54pm Monday 23rd June 2008

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TWO brothers have been jailed over a sophisticated fraud involving the sale of fake goods on eBay.

Arif Gorji, 27, received more than £51,000 for counterfeit items sold on the internet website while his brother Murad, 25, was paid £15,000.

The pair, of Granville Road, Blackburn, had a total of almost £180,000 worth of items listed in their eBay accounts, Preston Crown Court heard.

Arif Gorji was sentenced to two years prison while Murad was jailed for 12 months after both admitting an offence of conspiracy to breach the Tradesmarks Act.

The court heard that Blackburn with Darwen Trading Standards Department were informed that suspected counterfeit clothing and footwear were being offered for sale on eBay, the online auction site.

The enterprise ran from March 2005 to November 2006.

In the case of Arif Gorji, £134,000 worth of items were listed on his eBay account and over £51,000 paid into his account during that time.

Murad had around £45,000 worth of items were listed on his account, with £15,000 plus being paid in.

Donal McGuire, prosecuting on behalf of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said that when two next door homes were entered on Granville Road, in November last year a large amount of counterfeit clothing was discovered.

In one of the homes, over 3,000 counterfeit items were seized, while 253 fake clothing and footwear items were found at the next door property.

The two brothers later said they thought the clothes were genuine designer goods.

Arif Gorji spoke of a third man who was given permission to use his account. He said the man lodged money in his bank account and he had not known that transactions were counterfeit.

That person had been deported to Pakistan in the early part of last year.

The court also heard that some goods were shipped abroad to countries including France and Germany and many to Italy.

Mr McGuire said: "It is impossible to quantify the full level of trading".

At one point Arif Gorji was given a nine months prison sentence for two offences involving credit card fraud. The prosecution said that he came out and resumed the eBay fraud.

Neither of the defendants were said to be connected with the actual manufacturing of the fake goods.

Richard Dawson, defending, said: "They began trading in legitimate goods and not counterfeit ones.

"Both readily accept that there came a time when they knowingly dealt in counterfeit goods. Profit margins were very low.

"It was simply selling for personal gain, for profit."

In passing sentence, Judge Anthony Russell QC said: "These sort of frauds are serious because some members of the public are deceived into buying counterfeit goods in the belief they are genuine.

"They are also a serious attack on commerce because the legitimate holders of the trademark suffer when inferior goods are sold. They are difficult crimes to detect and investigate. "