Two men jailed in UK for 'biggest counterfeit haul'

Two men in the UK have been sentenced to three years in jail apiece after being caught with millions of pounds-worth of counterfeit luxury goods.

Nirmon Grover (44) and Ajit Arura (36) peddled counterfeit goods from a storage unit in Alperton, North London, which housed a company called Grover International Ltd.  The two men - who were arrested in 2010 - faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for their part in the scam.

Trading Standards officers found 80,000 fake items when the premises were raided, including 34,100 pairs of Nike footwear, Ugg boots, Louis Vuitton bags, designer fragrances, headphones and watches from Breitling and Rolex containing imitation packaging and holograms. Officers were tipped off to the activities after consumers complained of low quality and potentially unsafe goods.

If genuine the goods would have been worth more than £17m ($29m), but at street prices would likely have netted the pair around £1.7m, according to Brent Council's Trading Standards team, which suggests this is the largest ever haul by Trading Standards anywhere in the UK.

This is the most sophisticated operation Trading Standards have ever come across with a global supply link to China and Europe and an investigation lasting five years, said the Council.

Andrew Clooney, senior prosecutor at Brent Council (pictured), said: "The investigation stretched back a number of years as each time we went back to the storage facility, more counterfeit items were seized." 

"Our partners at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) were then reporting seizures of goods at the docks in Southampton and Tilbury.  It was no doubt a sophisticated operation," he added.

Mobile phones and SIM cards from the offenders were seized which suggested extensive travel and contained texts implicating Arura in the criminal activities.