Heraklion: 1,044 counterfeit goods, two arrests

Two people, a 52-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man, were arrested in Heraklion for the supply and sale of counterfeit goods, according to reports by ekriti.gr and dikastiko.gr citing the police authorities. The searches were carried out on Tuesday 18 August at a business and at a storage space in the city and produced a total of 1,044 items bearing counterfeit trademarks of well-known companies. Of these, about 120 were pieces of jewellery and 924 were clothing and other goods. The 924 items of clothing and other goods were destroyed on the spot, while for the remainder the trademark holders were notified and, after examining samples, confirmed that they were imitations of genuine products. The financial damage to the companies from the seized goods is estimated, so far, at at least 77,794 euros.

The case was not treated as a routine market inspection. A joint operational team was formed to investigate it, with the participation of members of the Attica Special Financial Audits Unit, which comes under the General Directorate of Financial Police, and a joint operation was organised in Heraklion. A case file was drawn up against the two arrested for forgery, for the receipt and disposal of the proceeds of crime, and for breaches of the legislation on trademarks and unfair competition. The administrative fines provided for were also imposed on them. Both are charged and were taken before the competent prosecuting authority, with no guilt established by any court.

For a city that hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors at the height of summer, the case has a double reading. On one side, trade in imitations harms the businesses that sell genuine products and pay the corresponding rights, creating an uneven market within the same commercial district. On the other, the consumer who buys a piece of jewellery or a garment with a counterfeit trademark has no guarantee as to the quality or safety of the materials, and in the event of a seizure loses their money as well. The scale of the seizure, with nearly a thousand items of clothing in a single storage space, indicates that this was not an isolated sale but organised supply. Inspections on the island have intensified more generally this summer, as was also reflected in the 1,469 offences recorded in three days across Crete.

The next step belongs to the justice system. The case file has been forwarded to the prosecutor’s office and it will be decided there whether criminal proceedings will be brought and for which of the offences attributed to the two accused. The sum of 77,794 euros is explicitly described as provisional: it concerns only the products already checked by the trademark holders and may be revised once the valuation of all the seized goods is complete. It has not been made known whether the investigation is being extended to suppliers or to other points of sale, nor whether more people are involved. More from the area on the Heraklion page.