Catching The Counterfeiters from UK Ports - Case Study

So many of the counterfeit products sold in the UK arrive on container ships and despite the best efforts of Border Force, Trading Standards and The Police, millions of pounds worth of counterfeit or otherwise illegal product flood into the UK every month.

This undercover assignment took the Antevorte team from Felixstowe to Cheshire and then involved the team giving evidence in Crown Court. The operation prevented a potentially dangerous counterfeit product from being sold within UK and Ireland.

After receiving a call from a very concerned Brand Protection Manager, we had a series of meetings to understand the issue, collate intelligence and plan the operation, which was to eventually secure a number of criminal convictions.

The absolute priority of the well-known FMCG manufacturer was to protect their consumers, their reputation and their sales by stopping the counterfeit from hitting the UK market.

Our customer received information that a group of criminals had arranged for a container of partially finished counterfeit goods to be shipped into the UK through Felixstowe container port. A source had provided exact details of the container.

As a result of our meetings, we agreed a plan with the client, Border Force, Ports Police and Trading Standards, to allow the container to move away from the port, under the control of our expert surveillance team.

We deployed our surveillance team at Felixstowe with the knowledge of the authorities and awaited the arrival of the container and subsequent collection.

Eventually the container was collected and the goods were followed for over 200 miles to a warehouse located in North West England. The container was unloaded and good quality video evidence was gathered.

After two days the second component part of the counterfeit arrived at the warehouse and the counterfeit product was assembled and packed.

Antevorte liaised with Police and Trading Standards and before any product could be distributed, arrests were made.
All of the product and counterfeiting paraphernalia was seized. The names of the criminals, other storage locations, associated vehicles and residential addresses had all been identified as a result of our surveillance and this information was used by Law Enforcement in the arrest phase.
Our team gave evidence in court and our video footage was instrumental in securing the convictions.
The lead Trading Standards Officer reported on “Fake Britain” that our surveillance had provided “The sort of evidence you dream of having”. The leader of the group was imprisoned for two years and three others were also jailed.
Consumers were protected and the reputation of the manufacturer was untarnished.