Counterfeit football shirts seized ahead of the start of Euro 2020
Tens of thousands of pounds worth of counterfeit football shirts have been seized by officers from the City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) just ahead of the start of the Euro 2020 football tournament.
Working alongside colleagues from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), PIPCU officers attended the home address and storage facility of a 19-year-old male in the Wembley area of London and uncovered £80,000 of counterfeit T-shirts and thousands of pounds in cash. The counterfeit merchandise had been imported from across the world just in time for the Euros.
One man was arrested and he has since been released under investigation.
Detective Sergeant Andrew Masterson, from the City of London Police, said: “This operation is an excellent example of PIPCU working collaboratively with the sports industry to tackle the sale of counterfeit goods. This individual used the start of the Euros to make financial gain and sell illegal t-shirts both online and at his make-shift store.
“The swift, joined-up action taken by police and our partners, shows there are no boundaries to our work in fighting intellectual property crime.”
Deputy Assistance Commissioner Jane Connors of the MPS said: “Disreputable people will always exploit anyone and anything for their own personal gain. Thousands of people could have paid a lot of their hard-earned money for illegal, counterfeit t-shirts.
“However, we are joined up with all of our policing partners and agencies to share intelligence and target criminal activity of any kind. This police operation was a direct consequence of such partnership working and has stopped this individual’s criminal activities.”
