The counterfeit golf club operation was the biggest of its kind ever to be investigated by a council Trading Standards team and the largest counterfeit group uncovered on eBay.
Four members of a seven-strong gang in Rainham were ordered to pay back the cash following a hearing under the Proceeds Of Crime Act at Snaresbrook Crown Court last week.
The confiscation orders totalled £513,000 - of which Havering Council will receive a large amount. The four were also told to pay the Council a total of £130,000 in prosecution costs.
The conclusion of the hearing on Friday came the day after Havering Council’s Trading Standards team were named as the best department in the country at the Anti-Counterfeiting Group’s annual awards.
The scammers sold millions of pounds worth of counterfeit golf clubs and other fake golf merchandise on eBay between June 2003 and March 2008.
Proceeds of Crime proceedings against the ‘ringleader’ and main defendant, Gary Bellchambers, from Rainham, have not yet been heard, and adjourned until September.
Bellchambers sourced and organised the delivery of more than six tonnes of golf equipment in the UK alone.
Under the confiscation orders, Roy Cottee, 67, of Thorn Lane, Rainham, was ordered to pay £220,000 within six months and also £60,000 prosecution costs. His wife Kay, 47, was ordered to pay £80,000 and £10,000 prosecution costs.
Keith Thomas, 51, of Martin Drive, Rainham, was ordered to pay £173,000 and £40,000 prosecution costs.
Sharron Williams, 50, of The Alders, West Wickham, Kent, was ordered to pay £40,000 and £10,000 prosecution costs.
THE majority of the counterfeit golfing equipment was manufactured at factories in Turtle Creek, Shenzhen, China, and shipped to the various defendants’ addresses in the UK.
From bases in Thailand or their homes in the UK, they arranged for the fake goods to be sent to eBay customers in Ireland, Australia, the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Brazil and New Zealand. Nearly every major golf brand had been counterfeited.
The downfall of the counterfeiting empire was brought about when a customer complained to Havering Council Trading Standards officers after she had tried to get a refund for two clubs. The council then launched an investigation, codenamed Operation Augusta, named after the US golf club which hosts The Masters.
Council officers searched the homes of the defendants and other addresses and seized computers and thousands of golf clubs.
The defendants sold the clubs for around £50-£100 (genuine clubs retail at £110-130). The cost of manufacturing each fake club and having it shipped from China to the UK was $5.
In the criminal trial, which took place between September and December 2009, Roy and Kay Cottee, Sharron Williams and Helen Wilson, 30, of The Knoll, Hertford, were found guilty of conspiring together to sell or distribute counterfeit golf clubs, clothing and accessories bearing signs likely to be mistaken for registered trademarks contrary to Section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977.
Gary Bellchambers, 47, of Dunedin Road, pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy along with Keith Thomas.
Chris Moughton, from Blackpool, pleaded guilty to a role in a connected conspiracy.
Bellchambers was sentenced to four years and three months in jail after the criminal trial. Keith Thomas was sentenced to 16 months in prison and Roy Cottee was given a custodial sentence of 12 months.
A confiscation hearing involving Helen Wilson and Chris Moughton was held in September last year.
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