FOUR STREET traders were put in jail yesterday by a judge when he said they would be remanded in custody for selling counterfeit Nike shoes at a horse fair in Kilrush, Co Clare.
At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Donagh McDonagh remanded the four street traders in jail for one week before he formally sentences next Wednesday.
In court, Margaret O’Brien (32) of Stokers Lawn, Listowel, Paddy O’Brien (26) Stokers Lawn, Listowel, Diane Casey (26) of Wood Rd, Kilrush and John O’Brien (43) of Kevin Barry Villas, Tralee pleaded guilty to exposing the Nike shoes for sale contrary to the Tradesmark Act on November 23rd, 2007.
In court yesterday, the judge was told that a Garda sweep of the market stalls took place on the day after Garda Donal Corkery had earlier spotted the Nike counterfeit shoes while going through the market in an unmarked Garda car on Kilrush’s Francis Street.
Garda Corkery said that there were six other gardaí in the operation and they were each allocated stalls to inspect. Garda Corkery said that as a result of the operation, 300 pairs of counterfeit Nike shoes were seized.
Garda Corkery said that Nike’s brand protection manager for the UK and Ireland, Alan Dorsey, confirmed that they were counterfeit shoes.
Garda Corkery said that Nike has marks on shoes that confirm if they are counterfeit or not and he said that Mr Dorsey would have been reluctant to give in open court this commercially sensitive information as it could fall into the wrong hands.
Counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan said the shoes had the incorrect country code, the incorrect colour code and the incorrect size labels.
Garda Corkery said that authentic Nike shoes retail for €110. He said that on the day, John O’Brien told him that he bought his runners off a man with a van earlier that morning for €30 and he was planning to sell them for €50. Garda Corkery confirmed that there were 158 shoes seized from the four accused.
The remainder were seized from three others: two who gave false names who could be non-Irish nationals and could not be traced.
The other man was Abdul Gafar (36) of Elm Park, Knock Rd, Claremorris, Co Mayo. Mr Gafar was cleared of the offence in court on Tuesday by the judge.
Mr Gafar pleaded not guilty and the judge held that questions existed if gardaí had proper lawful authority in seizing the goods following a legal submission from Pay Whyms at the start of the trial. Yesterday morning, the other four accused applied to change their pleas to not guilty, but the judge turned down the application. Judge McDonagh said: “The four people pleaded guilty to being in possession of the counterfeit shoes and how they were discovered is then no longer an issue.”
After the judge ordered that the four be remanded in custody for one week, counsel Ross O’Driscoll asked if there was any way he would revisit the order.
Judge McDonagh replied: “No. I have considered what I have done very carefully.”
