Market trader from Corby to be sentenced after nearly 27,000 fake DVDs and CDs seized by trading standards

Andrew Thornton, 33, of Ibsen Walk, pleaded guilty at St Albans Crown Court on Monday, January 11, to participating in a fraudulent business which involved the manufacture, distribution and sale of counterfeit DVDs and CDs.

Thornton, who traded in Bovingdon in Hertfordshire, was prosecuted by Hertfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service after nearly 27,000 DVDs and CDs were seized by trading standards officers in a three-year investigation up to June 2014.

Richard Thake, cabinet member for community safety at Hertfordshire County Council, said: “Hertfordshire Trading Standards will continue to fight against intellectual property crime.

“The sale of counterfeit goods damages honest businesses who suffer when sales are lost to criminals who peddle these illegal goods.”

The maximum sentence for fraudulent trading is imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.

Sentencing is due to take place at St Albans Crown Court on 12 February.