Knock off offender: Falkirk Del-Boy caught with £53,000 of fake designer goods

Alan Cairns, 59, claimed he never marketed any of the items as being the genuine article, but that did not stop police from searching his premises and seizing the fake items.

Appearing at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday, Cairns had pleaded guilty to possession of counterfeit goods at his 23 Castings Drive, Falkirk home on December 11, 2019.

The charges stated the fake items were copies of products sold by Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Lacoste, Canada Goose, Moncler, North Face, Ugg, Adidas, Nike, Calvin Klein and Armani.

Procurator fiscal depute Bernadette Cuthbertson said police intelligence uncovered Cairns’ Facebook selling page and then obtained a warrant to search his premises.

"They saw a large amount of boxes with delivery labels on them,” she said. “They were recently dated with the name of his partner on them. They searched the property and found a significant amount of counterfeit designer goods totalling £53,000 – the sum they would have sold for had they been genuine.”

The court heard Cairns was trying to start up his own business and had purchased the knock off items from a website in China. It was stated he never marketed the items to customers as being the genuine article.

Sheriff Simon Collins said: “You had possession of these items, which are likely to be mistaken for the real goods.”

He fined Cairns £520 to be paid back at a rate of £100 per month.