A Swansea pensioner was making tens of thousands of pounds by importing counterfeit big-brand skincare creams from China and selling them on eBay, a court has heard. Norman Gill was selling the fake Bio-Oil products for half the price of the real thing and when the company which owns the brand found out and told him to stop he simply continued to trade – even recruiting a friend to sell the creams in his name to hide his dodgy dealings.
The defendant made around £50,000 from selling the counterfeit creams online, charging customers half what they would pay for the real thing. The bogus beauty scam is not 73-year-old Gill's first foray into fraudulent activity – he has previous convictions for claiming tens of thousands of pounds in benefits he was not entitled to. Swansea Crown Court heard though the defendant lives in plush house in an nice Mumbles street he is in financial difficulty and is currently trying to sell the property.
Stephen Rees, prosecuting, said in August 2017 the firm Geneva Laboratories became aware that products purporting to be their Bio-Oil creams were being sold on eBay by the defendant Gill. An investigation was launched and a test purchase was made from the defendant's eBay account . The creams were sent for testing in the lab and found to be fake. The firm sent Gill a "cease and desist" letter telling him it was aware of his activity and requiring him to stop. The court heard the defendant replied saying he would stop but in fact continued to import and sell the fake Chinese products for the next eight months, recruiting his gym friend John Burns to sell them for him from his eBay account. The prosecutor said Geneva Laboratories continued its investigation and made a further test purchase this time from Burns' account. Again the items purporting to be Bio-Oil were tested and found to be counterfeit and Burns was written to.
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The police were notified and in April 2018 both defendants were interviewed. Gill gave a largely "no comment" interview though did admit to selling the products for around half the £20 price they were in the shops. Meanwhile 73-year-old Burns said he had agreed to let his friend open an eBay account in his name and in return would receive "the odd £100 in cash as a thank you" for transferring payments from his account to Gill.
Norman Gill, of Langland Court Road, Langland, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to acquiring criminal property and to a trademark offence when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. In 2009 he was convicted of fraudulently claiming £70,000 in benefits by claiming he was penniless and out of work when he actually lived in a half-a-million pound house and was running two companies. Then in 2020 he was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison for fraudulently claiming almost £32,000 in benefits as his wife's carer while she actually lived in a residential home – a claim which continued for three months after she had subsequently died.
John Burns, of Glanmor Road, Uplands, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to acquiring criminal property and to money laundering on the basis that he did not initially know that what his friend was doing was illegal but that he subsequently became suspicious of what was going on and that he had no involvement in the importation of the products. He has no previous convictions.
Robin Rouch, for Gill, said while the defendant had not tested the counterfeit products he was importing from China there was no evidence that they were in anyway harmful or dangerous. He said his client should have stopped when he received the cease and desist letter but did not and it was accepted that at that point he got his friend and co-defendant involved. He said though the defendant lived in a "nice house in a nice area" the reality was he was in "real financial difficulty" with two mortgages on the property, which he was currently trying to sell. The barrister noted that a probation officer who had dealt with Gill had observed a clear change in his attitude since his last offending and resultant custodial sentence.
Ian Ibrahim, for Burns, said the defendant was a man of previously good character and that his involvement in the activity was the "only blemish in his seven decades". He said his client had met Gill at his gym and felt sorry for him and said it was accepted that he had been "naïve" in going along with the scheme.
Recorder David Elias QC said given Gill's age, the length of time since the offending, the remorse he had expressed in a letter to the court, and the changes noted in the defendant since his period of incarceration he was just about able to suspend the prison sentence that was due. With a 25% discount for his guilty pleas the recorder sentenced Gill to 13 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered him to complete a rehabilitation course.
The recorder said Burns had lost his good name after being "dragged" into the scheme by Gill and he said he had not doubt the courts would not be seeing him again. With a discount for his guilty plea, which was entered on the day he was due to stand trial, Burns was made the subject of a 12-month community order with a rehabilitation course.
Speaking after the sentencing detective constable Daryl Fryatt from the City of London Police's police intellectual property crime unit said: "Gill wanted to make large financial gain for himself by selling fake products to people online and repeatedly tried to change his online store name to avoid being caught and banned from selling. Not content with already making vast profits through dishonest means he convinced Burns to help him with his slippery business.
"Thankfully the product was not dangerous to those who had purchased it – rather it was useless and of no benefit. Gill's business was anything but slick and this sentence should make it clear to criminals that you will get caught and punished for selling counterfeit goods to unsuspecting members of the public."
Tim Moss, chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office, said the case demonstrated how criminals would deal in counterfeit versions of any kind of product if they saw a profit to be made, and he said their activities caused "real social and environmental harm" and damaged legitimate businesses.
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