Macau Customs Service (SA) spokeswoman Lee Sze Ngar said yesterday that its officers busted on Monday and Tuesday two clothing shops in the city centre and Avenida Horta e Costa area suspected of selling products infringing the copyrights of eight top fashion brands, seizing a total of 177 bogus products.
According to Lee, who hosted yesterday’s press conference at the SA headquarters in Barra, during Monday’s and Tuesday’s operations, customs officers arrested separately a 52-year-old local Filipina and a 26-year-old local woman at the respective shops, where the officers confiscated 84 suspected fake products involving brands such as Chanel, Cartier, Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Hermès, and 106 suspected counterfeit products involving brands such as Chanel, Celine and Prada.
Under questioning, Lee said, the 52-year-old suspect, who opened the shop in the central district in 2011, admitted that the products, including designer accessories, handbags, shoes and clothing, were purchased by her overseas or by purchasing them online, with the purchase price ranging from 30 patacas to 400 patacas, and were sold at 1.5 times the purchase price, while the 26-year-old suspect working at the shop in the Avenida Horta e Costa area which opened in June last year admitted that the bogus products, including designer clothing and jewellery, were imported from overseas by the shop’s female owner and shipped to the shop, with the price of the goods ranging from about 130 patacas to 370 patacas, but were sold at prices ranging between 99 patacas and 1,750 patacas.
The genuine products’ total retail prices would have been 2.75 million patacas, according to Lee.
Lee noted that both suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP). According to the Industrial Property Code Decree-Law No 97/99/M, the suspects could face a hefty fine and up to six months in jail.
As the local female person-in-charge of the shop in the Avenida Horta e Costa area was not in Macau when the press conference was held yesterday, the Customs Service will try to track her down, as well as other people involved in the two cases, Lee said.
The bogus designer products seized by Macau Customs Service (SA) officers from two clothing shops in the city centre and Avenida Horta e Costa area on Monday and Tuesday respectively are displayed during yesterday’s press conference at the SA headquarters in Barra. – Photos: Yuki Lei
