Apr 21, 2010
$3.7m fake goods seized
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Boxes of counterfeit electronic goods worth $3.7 million in street value were seized by police. -- PHOTOS: SPF
The items seized were mainly mobile phones purportedly modelled after well-known brands.
COUNTERFEIT electronic goods worth $3.7 million in street value were seized by police in an 11-hour operation conducted by police on Tuesday. Also nabbed were four men, aged 18 to 30 years, for their involvement in a counterfeit syndicate which imported and distributed fake electronic goods, said police on Wednesday. Officers from the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department raided a shop at Block 47 Tanglin Halt, and seized a total of 15,129 items of fake electronic goods.
This is the largest such seizure in the last three years, said a police statement. The items seized were mainly mobile phones purportedly modelled after well-known brands. Preliminary investigations indicated that the fakes were supplied from overseas. Said Assistant Director of the Specialised Crime Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Superintendent of Police Goh Lam Kiong: 'Police take a serious view of syndicated piracy and will clamp down hard on syndicates involved in the sale of counterfeit products.
Police will continue to take strict enforcement action against these pirates who profit at the expense of legitimate business and consumers.' Investigations against those arrested are on-going. Any persons in possession of infringing goods for the purposes of trade or manufacture in which a registered trade mark is falsely applied can be fined up to $10,000 per article - up to a maximum $100,000 for all items, or jailed up to five years, or both.
