Man convicted of deliberately selling fake AirPods after Hemel warehouse raid

A man from Hertfordshire has been given a suspended jail sentence after he deliberately sold fake AirPods online.

An investigation linked to Adam Owen, of Oaktree Meadows, Horncastle, saw thousands of counterfeit pods seized by the council officers. Estimations from Hertfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards team estimate the seized items would have had a value in excess of £1 million, had they been genuine.

Owen was sentenced at Luton Crown Court yesterday (18 January), having previously admitted to knowingly selling the knock off Apple products.

He sold the lookalike earphones via his company ARO Commerce Ltd under the website domain geekswag.co.uk. Owen admitted to having 10,000 more units of counterfeit Apple AirPods that he intended to sell, in court.

Despite being fake these items were knowingly retailed at competitive prices targeting unsuspecting consumers, the council discovered.

Someone reported Owen to the council in April 2022, and authority officials seized roughly 2,500 pairs of AirPods from a shipping warehouse in Hemel Hempstead. Following an investigation the council confirmed they were fake.

Further enquiries from the council found that had the products been genuine, the retail value would have far exceeded a million pounds.

Following Owen’s conviction, Hertfordshire’s trading standards team is launching confiscation proceedings against the fake trader, and both parties will next appear in court on 17 May.

Trading Standards warn shoppers to be wary of unfamiliar websites that may be selling counterfeits of familiar branded products because:

-Goods ordered may never arrive.

-Items could be poorly made and not working properly.

-The safety of the product is unknown.

-The price may be much lower than a genuine item, so you buy a useless “bargain.”

-The price may be competitive with genuine products creating the illusion of authenticity.

-Traceability, origin and ethical production is unknown.

Councillor Morris Bright said: “These fake pods were marketed to unsuspecting customers as if they were genuine AirPods and close to the retail price for genuine items, but were in fact low quality counterfeit products imported from China.

“By offering counterfeit goods for sale Mr Owen sought to dupe unsuspecting consumers with his dodgy wares. My advice to residents when shopping online is to do research before parting with your money – online reviews may alert you to issues with a seller and consider paying by credit card for the additional protection doing so affords.

“Those additional few minutes of research when shopping online can often be the difference between being scammed or not. If you think you have been sold counterfeit goods, or haven’t received goods you have paid for, get in touch with trading standards so that we can fully investigate and bring these people to justice.”

The council wants to hear from anyone who purchased a pair of branded AirPods or AirPod Pros between 3 May 2021 and 5 April 2022 from Owen’s website. Its trading standards team can be contacted via email on [email protected]. People are asked to include their full name, contact details, order confirmation, order date and order number within the email.