A SELF-STYLED Arthur Daley caught when police found 6,000 stolen and counterfeit items at a warehouse has walked free from court.
Market trader Mark Simmons told investigators after the raid on the site in Durham Tees Valley Airport: "Everyone has a bit of a fiddle, don't they?"
A court heard that an Aladdin's Cave of fake designer clothing, shoes, bags and sunglasses was found at the Powerhouse building in July last year. Trading standards officers estimated the goods were worth [pounds]300,000.
Simmons, 37, rented the premises for [pounds]50-a-week and told police and trading standards officials that he let "a couple of lads" store things there.
cookie lee Tiffany And CoIn a series of interviews, he described himself as an Arthur Daley wheeler-dealer who took about [pounds]800 each Sunday at a market in Scarborough.
He maintained he knew nothing about the stolen goods and said he had built up a stock of genuine clothing over the previous six or seven months.
Simmons, of Wylam Avenue, Darlington, said some of the training shoes recovered were not his, but would not say who he was storing them for.
Zoe Van Den Bosch, mitigating, told Teesside Crown Court that about half of the haul of thousands of items from the warehouse was not counterfeit.
"This is not all he does, he holds counterfeit goods for other people, " said Miss Van Den Bosch. "He is a market trader and has been for some years.
"On this occasion, he had a large amount of stock, some of which was his, and some of which, clearly, was not his.
They were being held for someone else."
Simmons admitted 12 charges of possessing goods with false trademarks, and was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Judge Brian Forster, QC, also imposed a two-month electronically- tagged curfew, between 9pm and 6am, and warned Simmons about future ventures.
Louis Vuitton 2007 Handbags"In every sense, you are going to be walking a tightrope, " the judge told him.
"You do seem to be someone who lives for the moment.
"You have described yourself as an Arthur Daley-type person. You are going to
embroidered patches have to be pretty careful."
The haul included goods with the trademarks of Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Lacoste, Christian Dior, North Face and Prada.
The goods are being stored in a secret location in Darlington until the brands decide what should be done with them.
Councillor Stephen Harker, of Darlington Borough Council, last night warned against the dangers of buying and selling counterfeit goods.
The council's trading standards team played a key role inbringing Simmons to justice.
Coun Harker said: "For those who sell these goods, the message is clear, don't do it, the consequences are real, you will have the counterfeit goods confiscated and face a jail sentence.
"The council's advice is simple - don't deal in fake goods."
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