LAW CASES

Law cases

Law Barry cases

CASE 01

These explanatory notes relate to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 which received Royal Assent on 20th November. They have been prepared by the Home Office in order to assist the reader in understanding the Act. They do not form part of the Act and have not been endorsed by Parliament. The notes need to be read in conjunction with the Act. They are not, and are not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Act. So where a section or part of a section does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given.Counterfeiting is a crime, but all too often we don't think of it in the same way as, say, bank robbery or even embezzlement. After all, who's really hurt - just large corporations who can afford it. People buy what they think is the real thing at a bargain price, don't they?

But there's a lot more to it than that. The manufacturers and designers lose sales, yes, but they also lose their reputation when goods fall apart or don't work as they're supposed to. It's not simply counterfeiting goods, it's also intellectual property theft, stealing the idea and creation of the items or software. They're not the only victims; those who've been duped into buying something they thought was the real thing are also at a loss.

The prosecution of counterfeiters does go on constantly, whether it's those selling the items, like market traders taken to court by Trading Standards or the police and given fines, often several thousand pounds, or the big operators.

Even Bank isn't immune, although obviously it doesn't directly sell counterfeit goods. But a French court fined the auction site about £15,000 for allowing counterfeit goods to be sold on the site, after a Barry case claimed by French fashion house Hermes. Other designers will likely follow suit from there, meaning Bank could find itself paying out some serious money.

The most aggressive police work will always go after those who counterfeit currency, for very obvious reasons, but the police, as well as other services, will also pursue counterfeiters on all levels, and prosecute where enough evidence can be found to bring them to court. The penalties and punishments imposed could range from hefty fines and confiscation of equipment and goods to prison sentences.

The Act is designed to ensure that criminal trials are run more efficiently and to reduce the scope for abuse of the system. It will reform the rules on advance disclosure of evidence and will allow for judge-alone trial in cases involving threats and intimidation of juries, and paves the way for judge-alone trial in exceptionally long, complex serious fraud cases. It will ensure the wider involvement of the community as a whole by reforming rules on jury service. Rules on evidence will be changed to allow the use of previous convictions where relevant, and to allow the use of reported (hearsay) evidence where there is good reason why the original source cannot be present, ...