Leicester counterfeiter/money launderer gets 2 years in prison

Posted 27/06/17

Following a prosecution brought by Leicester City Council Trading Standards Service, Vinay Kumar Hansrani (48) of Hall Close, Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire has been sentenced to 24months imprisonment for money laundering and 12 months imprisonment for counterfeiting designer clothes. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Trading Standards and police raided a factory at Halkin Street, Belgrave, Leicester in December 2011 and discovered thousands of counterfeit garments, labels and machinery adapted to and in the process of making counterfeit garments.

In total, officers found in excess of 3950 counterfeit clothing, thousands of swing tags, neck labels, buttons and zippers relating to 29 different designer brands which included Adidas, Armani, Superdry, UGG, Henri Lloyd, Lacoste, Paul Boutique, VOI and many others.

The counterfeit articles had an estimated street value of between £239,400 and £478,000.

At the time that the warrant was executed, one of the embroidery machines was found in the process of embroidering counterfeit Ralph Lauren emblems onto to shirts and a button press was found to be applying counterfeit Paul Boutique’s buttons to the counterfeit jackets.

Mr Hansrani splashed out some of the profits of his "sophisticated and successful illegal business enterprise" on several cars including an £187,000 Rolls-Royce and an Audi A5 – while declaring profits to the taxman of just a few thousand pounds.

The money laundering offence related to the transfer of £198,000 during the period of January 2011 and June 2012, to Lakhani Motor Group of Leicester for the purchase of high value cars including the Rolls Royce Ghost, an Audi A5 amongst several other vehicles.

Leicester City Council is now carrying out a financial investigation with a view to confiscating illegal assets.

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