*The matter was before Kilrush District Court.
A 63 year old West Clare woman convicted for selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Victoria Secrets designer goods for knock-down prices has escaped jail.
This follows Judge Alec Gabbett imposing a suspended three-month prison term on Eileen Bracken of Woodfield Drive, Kilrush after she pleaded guilty to eleven separate counts of selling or offering for sale counterfeit designer goods from her home on dates between October 31st to December 12th 2022.
The offences are contrary to the Trade Marks Act 1996 and some of the counterfeit labels that Ms Bracken pleaded guilty to selling or offering for sale include Louis Vuitton, Prada, Northface, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, Victoria Secrets, Adidas, Alexander McQueen and Chanel.
At Kilrush District Court, Judge Gabbett said that he would impose the suspended prison term on one count on account of Ms Bracken having no previous convictions and a Probation Report concluding that she was at a very low risk of re-offending and hasn’t come to Garda attention since the matter first came to Garda notice two years ago.
Judge Gabbett said that he would be taking the remaining counts into consideration.
When the case first came before the court, Judge Gabbett commented that the “the game is up” for Ms Bracken selling the counterfeit items at knockdown prices.
Judge Gabbett said that the three-month suspended prison term for 24 months was in place as a deterrent against this type of future offending.
Judge Gabbett said, “If her entrepreneurial streak starts to come out again the suspended sentence will put a stop to that”.
He said, “Whether people like or not, the trademark system is very important and protects people’s rights and the owner of the trademarks are entitled to their rights and use of their logos and the offences are clearly in breach of all of that”.
Solicitor for Ms Bracken, Patrick Moylan said that a fine would be difficult for his client given her financial circumstances and Judge Gabbett did not impose any fine.
Sgt Frank O’Grady previously told the court that Gardaí under warrant seized a large amount of counterfeit designer items at Ms Bracken’s home in Kilrush.
Sgt O’Grady stated that Gardaí later confirmed that Ms Bracken had no authorisation from the individual designer brands to sell the goods.
Sgt O’Grady told the court that the estimated cost of the designer items from the eleven brands was €23,170 and Eileen Bracken was selling them for €1,455 resulting in an estimated loss of €21,715 to the companies.
He said that Gardaí received statements from the different trademark companies confirming that the items Ms Bracken was selling and that she was advertising to sell were counterfeit items and she was not authorised to sell or advertise the trademark designer items.
Mr Moylan said that Ms Bracken had purchased the goods from Turkey to sell to local people.
He said that Ms Bracken’s family came under financial pressure at the time and “she thought this might be some new way to earn some money”.
He said that Ms Bracken has worked previously but is now on disability where she is dealing with a medical condition.
Judge Gabbett said, “The victims here are the large multinational corporations and if they don’t protect their rights and entitlements under those intellectual property laws, they lose that”.
Mr Moylan said, “The guilty plea is hugely valuable in the case because if I was to put the State through their paces, we could be here a week with witnesses coming in from far and wide from the companies concerned”.
Mr Moylan said that Ms Bracken hasn’t engaged in any selling since Gardaí seized the goods.
