Fake DVDs and CDs land trader in court

A TRADER who ignored previous warnings and continued to sell fake DVDs and CDs at a Fenland market has admitted nine charges of selling counterfeit goods. Michael Wilding was arrested after a multi-agency operation on Whittlesey Sunday Market in April 200

A TRADER who ignored previous warnings and continued to sell fake DVDs and CDs at a Fenland market has admitted nine charges of selling counterfeit goods.

Michael Wilding was arrested after a multi-agency operation on Whittlesey Sunday Market in April 2005 saw them seize a haul of 260 DVDs and 236 CDs from the back of a car being driven by him.

Wilding was first cautioned in 2001 for selling the counterfeit goods at Whittlesey's Sunday market but continued to trade.

In March 2005 undercover officers bought a counterfeit CD and a DVD of the film Oceans Twelve from Wilding's stall. A month later Trading Standards led a multi-agency operation on Whittlesey Market alongside police, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and the British Phonographic Industry.

Andrew Neal, Cambridgeshire County Council Trading Standards Officer, said: "Activities like this do not only affect what may be regarded as big business, it seriously disrupts the viability of local cinemas and retail outlets with a spin-off effect on employment and local economies."

Wilding, of Boston, Lincolnshire, was remanded in custody by Cambridge Crown Court Judge Jonathan Haworth until sentencing in three weeks' time, after he failed to appear at a preliminary hearing at Fenland Magistrates' Court on June 21 last year.

A warrant was issued by magistrates and he was arrested by police at Heathrow Airport two months ago when returning to the country.