Payback for sale of unsafe goods
Havering Council’s trading standards team has returned to court to ensure a company director who was prosecuted for selling unsafe electrical goods, pays back the profit he made.
Rizwan Nasir (52), of Havering, was given a three-month prison sentence for offences of failing to comply with the requirements of safety regulations, last year.
The sentence was suspended for 18 months.
Following, what is known as a proceeds of crime investigation, the Council’s trading standards returned to court last month (August 2023).
This was to ask for the removal of the money Nasir made as profit, thought to be around £50k, from the sale of the unsafe goods.
The Court heard that Nasir has £38K of that money available and he has been given three months to pay that amount back.
If he does not pay, he will face a prison sentence of at least seven months. In addition, he was asked to pay a contribution of £2k towards the costs of the investigation.
Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council, said:
“This is another great example of the work that our teams carry out to help make sure our residents are kept as safe as possible in our borough.
“The investigation has prevented those unsafe products from reaching resident’s homes.
"The additional work also shows that we and our partners will take the strongest action necessary.
“We hope this sends a loud and clear message to anyone thinking they can get away with this kind of thing, to think again.”
Nasir was prosecuted last year following a seizure of goods from a storage address in Romford.
The operation was carried out by the Council’s Trading Standards team working in partnership with National Trading Standards officers and the Metropolitan Police.
The judge also issued a forfeiture order against Buyersbargin LTD.
It was an online business which sold electrical chargers, adaptors, plugs, cables and earphones, of which Mr Nasir was a company director from 2015.
The company was also found guilty of six offences of failing to comply with the requirements of safety regulations, plus three counts of unauthorised use of a trademark.
A large quantity of the items had a retail value of £54,000.
They were falsely branded as goods made by names such as Apple, Samsung, Beats and Sennheiser and were found to be counterfeit or contravening UK safety regulations