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| Issued By West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service |
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| Issued By West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service |
As part of the ongoing
operation against counterfeiters, West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service has
seized counterfeit Calvin Klein boxer briefs worth approximately £2000. Over
one hundred packs of the designer briefs were recovered when Trading Standards
Officers visited a local market. The products, demonstrated the highly
sophisticated techniques of the counterfeiters showing how they can make the
product packaging appear genuine. However, on a closer examination of the
product the counterfeiters had made a fundamental error – the care label on
the briefs had rather cheeky washing instructions, which could be misconstrued
to say the least!
‘fumble
dry, remove promptly, use a worm iron’
West
Yorkshire’s Chief Trading Standards Officer, Martin Wood said:
“The
packaging of these boxer briefs was extremely high quality and customers would
almost certainly not have been able to identify them as counterfeit.
Normally when we think of counterfeiting, we think of cd’s, perfume,
clothing and watches. This demonstrates that counterfeiters consider anything to
be fair game and their action undermines legitimate business. As well as the usual categories, motor oil, soap, vodka and
whisky have all been seized in the past.
It is an ongoing battle because counterfeiters are getting better and
better but we will continue to undertake operations such as this because it hits
them where it hurts – in the pocket”.
The
seizure was part of an ongoing operation against counterfeiting by the West
Yorkshire Trading Standards team during the busy period in the run up to
Christmas. Raids over the past few months in the Leeds, Halifax, Bradford and
Wakefield areas have netted in excess of 35,000 counterfeit items with a total
street value of approximately £250,000.
Councillor
Graham Clarke, Chair of West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee said:
“West
Yorkshire Trading Standards Officers are cracking down on illegal traders
operating within town centres and at car boot sales. Further operations are
planned throughout the region in the run up to Christmas. Let this be a warning
to all counterfeiters”
For
further information please contact:
Paul
Smith, Principal Officer, tel 0113 289 8219
Paul
Cooper, Divisional Manager, tel 0113 289 8240