The Nazareth District Court sentenced 27-year-old Khalid Hamuda, an Arab shop-keeper, to a year in prison and a NIS 30,000 fine for selling fake goods. The sentence was the result of a plea bargain.
The shop-keeper sold laundry detergents bearing fake trademarks for Tide, Ariel, fake chocolate-spread of the Israeli brand-leading Shahar Ha-Oleh brand, and fake Pantene and Head & Shoulders shampoos in his grocery store.
In passing sentence, Nazareth District Court President George Azouli stated that “with economic crime of this nature, the public interest requires a severe punishment which acts as a deterrent and prevents systematic trademark fraud from becoming widespread and damaging the brand owners economically and undermines their hard-earned reputation”. He went on to say that the public is damaged as they spend hard-earned cash on what appears to be leading brands but is, in fact, cheap rubbish.” With respect to the issuance of a fine, in addition to jail sentence, the judge explained that crimes committed for financial gain should be punished by fines to get the criminal where it hurts.
Our Comments
The crimes were committed in 2008 when a gang stole 100 tonnes of the chocolate spread from the Shachar Oleh factory warehouse, so one wonders if he wasn’t selling the real thing as the real thing.
The other products all are leading brands owned by Proctor & Gamble.
Although clothing with fake logos from the Far East are more common, as is fake Viagra, music disks and software, we note that last year, fake suntan cream resulted in Israeli sunbathers getting severely sun-burnt.
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