Man ordered to pay £897k for fake AirPod scam after Hertfordshire County Council investigation
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Adam Owen, of Oaktree Meadows, Horncastle, must pay £897,841.43 to the authorities, after a court order was made.
Owen ran an online service where customers were duped into thinking they were purchasing Apple AirPods.
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Hide AdLuton Crown Court ordered the money to be confiscated under proceeds of crime legislation, following Mr Owen’s conviction in January 2024.


Owen pleaded guilty at St Albans Magistrates Court on 22 November 2023 to offences under the Trade Marks Act 1994.
It was proved by Trading Standards staff in Hertfordshire that Owen was running ARO Commerce Ltd which traded as Geekswag.co.uk. In total, approximately 10,000 units of counterfeit Apple AirPods were linked to the business.
Owen was given a two-year suspended jail sentence and ordered to complete 180 hours community service in January 2024. He now has three months to pay the confiscated sum or serve a default prison sentence of up to seven years.
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Hide AdA court heard that the majority of the confiscated money will go to the Home Office, but a portion of the funds will go to the county council to offset the cost of the prosecution, and compensate six victims for their losses.
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.
“Our trading standards team are working hard to investigate and prosecute people like Mr Owen who seek to dupe unsuspecting customers, and this confiscation order makes it clear that the courts won’t allow people to profit from this sort of criminal behaviour.
“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.
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Hide Ad“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.”