Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
UK's biggest haul of counterfeit CDs seized at Manchester Airport
A large-scale international counterfeit and smuggling scam was dismantled by police following the seizure at Manchester Airport of the UK's biggest ever haul of counterfeit CDs.
The Manchester Evening News reports that the 1.2-tonne consignment of music, with a street value of £245,000, was smuggled in from Hong Kong.
It included Rolling Stones, Queen and Taylor Swift albums - destined to be passed off as legitimate and sold on the internet over the Christmas period.
The international scam, believed to date back a decade, was worth more than £20m. The arrest was the culmination of a joint investigation by the airport's Border Force officers, the City of London Police Fraud Investigation team and anti-piracy investigators BPI and IFPI.
A further 20,000 CDs were also seized by City of London Police officers from a warehouse in Lancashire.
Police suspicions were raised when CDs started selling on well-known internet sites, under-cutting major retailers by about 50p. The smuggler had mixed in genuine CDs with counterfeit discs to cover his tracks.
Story filed 19.12.12
More Articles...
