A city centre shopkeeper has today (6 September) been ordered by York Crown Court to pay over £75,000 profit from the sale of counterfeit goods from his shop over the past six years, following a proceeds of crime investigation by City of York Council’s Trading Standards.
Frank Kerr, aged 70 of Milan House, Eboracum Way, off Heworth Green, York has been given three months to pay the £75,059.98 benefit from his crimes or face a two year prison sentence after which the debt will still be hanging over him. He has also been ordered to pay £15,000 to City of York Council towards their investigation costs, within nine months.
The investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 followed a criminal investigation culminating in the prosecution of Frank Kerr in 2015. This followed the council’s Trading Standards officers finding racks of counterfeit clothes and other pirated luxury goods at Miss Diva, York. At the time, Mr Kerr told officers that he was providing a service for people who couldn’t afford the genuine article and that he felt the matter was quite trivial, having already been cautioned by Trading Standards officers for similar offences in 2012.
Mr Kerr pleaded guilty to 11 offences involving counterfeit goods, and 11 more as the sole director of Miss Diva Too Ltd. He also asked for 348 other offences to be taken into consideration. He was given a suspended four-month prison sentence.
At the time of that trial in 2015, the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, predicted that the “sting in the tail” of the case would come following the financial investigation into the proceeds of these crimes, when Trading Standards would ask the court to confiscate his assets.
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