Fake DVD and tobacco seller fined 11 years after being caught at car boot sale
A man who sold counterfeit tobacco and DVDs has had his day in court more than a decade after being caught at a car boot sale.
Qiang Xia, who now lives in Wolverhampton, was spotted with another man at a sale in Cheltenham back in September 2010.
Undercover officers bought a Toy Story 3 DVD and a pouch of Golden Virginia tobacco at the event.
They were confirmed to be fake and officers then seized 34 pouches of the tobacco and 269 DVDs at the car boot – along with a further 499 fake DVDs from Xia's house in Birmingham the next month.
Xia was charged and summoned to court on March 19, 2012, but he failed to attend and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Meanwhile, the other man, was caught and prosecuted soon after for selling counterfeit DVDs again.
Xia, formerly of Dogpool Lane in Birmingham but now of Mount Pleasant in Wolverhampton, managed to avoid capture for 10 years until he was arrested in the West Midlands – leading to him appearing at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on March 23 this year.
The 38-year-old admitted 12 offences of selling, or possessing for sale, fake DVDs and one offence of selling fake tobacco.
He was fined £110, ordered to pay £645 towards prosecution costs and the court ordered all seized items to be forfeited and destroyed.
Councillor Dave Norman, cabinet member for trading standards at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “This prosecution sends out a clear message that no matter how long you think you can hide for, eventually you will be caught and brought before the courts. These illegal activities harm the trade of legitimate suppliers and they will not get away with it.”
