Fraudster Mark Radford Sold Fake Ferrari, BMW and Porsche Badges in £100,000 Scam

A fraudster has been jailed after admitting selling £100,000 of fake car accessories bearing famous names including Rolls Royce, Porsche and Ferrari.

Mark Radford showed a disregard for companies' trademarks as he produced and sold more than 25,000 counterfeit car badges which he shaped using rubber moulds.

The 49-year-old, of Coalville in Leicestershire, illegally sold the goods on eBay and had a turnover of approxiamtely £100,000 from sales between May 2011 and March 2012, Leicester County Council's Trading Standards said.

Police found 38,000 counterfeit items when they raided Radford's Charnwood Publishing Company Limited headquaters in March last year.

The discovery included 6,000 metal badges and 24,000 iron-on logos as well as T-shirts, caps, cuff links and wallets.

Because Radford was not paying royalties to the world-famous brands for the right to use their insignia, the haul was valued at about £209,000.

The businessman has been running legitimate enterprises for 30 years and it was accepted that despite the fraudulent transactions, half of Charnwood Publishing Company Limited was legal.

But Radford pleaded guilty to 21 offences, including possessing goods bearing a registered trademark without consent – namely the Leaping Jaguar figure and BMW badges – making and possessing articles designed for producing copies of trademark goods and fraudulently applying a registered trademark to goods before selling them.