A READING man has been fined more than £150,000 following an investigation by Reading Borough Council’s trading standards team.
Mohammed Ashfaq Asghar, of Linden Road in Whitley, was handed a three-year jail sentence after selling fake car service history books on eBay.
Now he’s been given £153,238 confiscation order after the council investigated his conviction for trademark violations back in 2021.
Mr Asghar was advertising car service history books on the online selling platform eBay and offering the option of applying dealership stamps on request and creating fake service histories.
His property was subject to a raid in June 2019 which found around 400 fake service history books and 29 fake dealership stamps.
He is thought to have generated more than £75,000 in the 18-month period between January 2018 and June 2019.
After his trial in 2021, Reading Borough Council launched a Proceeds of Crime Act proceeding, which is designed to recover assets generated through illegal activities.
Ms Asghad has now been ordered to hand over a total of around £175,280, including £22,000 of prosecution fees.
The fees must be paid within three months, with an additional 18 months of imprisonment imposed for late payment.
Rob Abell, Consumer Protection Group manager at the council, said: “This exceptional result follows a comprehensive and determined investigation by our Trading Standards officers.
“Where possible, they will always work tirelessly to remove the benefit of crime from convicted offenders.
“It is the sort of important work which goes on behind the scenes at the Council, which is often overlooked unless you are unfortunate enough to be directly involved in a scam.
He concluded: “This penalty should serve as a warning to anyone else selling counterfeit goods.”
Confiscation orders determine whether there has been any benefit of a “criminal lifestyle” through illegal activities and deny them use of any assets or financial gain.
This is intended to deny criminals the use of such assets, return assets to victims where possible, and further deincentivise prospective offenders.
