A man from Dalton has been sent to prison for 22 months after he pleaded guilty to a range of counterfeiting and benefits charges.
John Derek Lupton, 53, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court today after pleading guilty to 32 counterfeiting offences covering the period from 1st January 2005 to 2nd July 2006 and to illegally claiming benefits totalling £28,959.27 between 01 December 2001 and 08 August 2006.
The 22-month sentence comprised 12 months for the counterfeiting offences and 10 months for benefit fraud. Both sentences are to run consecutively. On issuing the sentence Judge Wright said: "Lupton had been cheating the copyright and trademark owners and cheating the public by selling inferior merchandise."
Cumbria Trading Standards officers raided Lupton's home and other associated premises on 27 October 2005 and again on 2 July 2006 when they seized computers used by Lupton in his counterfeiting operation and thousands of counterfeit discs.
In between these dates, officers from the DWP attended car boot sales in Barrow and filmed Lupton selling copied music, film and computer games discs on three Sundays in May 2006.
Officers from Cumbria Trading Standards, the DWP, the Police and FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) picked up Lupton on Sunday 2 July 2006 at The Strand car boot sale, Barrow, when Lupton was arrested and questioned - he admitted making and selling copied discs over a long period.
Phil Ashcroft, Head of Cumbria Trading Standards, said
"It appears that John Lupton couldn't stop copying. Despite being prosecuted in July 2005 for trade mark offences, he continued to break the law. I hope that the sentence imposed today, backed with the threat of a proceeds of crime confiscation order, sends a very clear message to other people who think that counterfeiting is easy money and who may be tempted".
ENDS
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