§ Sir Dudley Smithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many prosecutions have been instituted by the Director of Public Prosecutions or the police in the past five years in respect of industrial or commercial counterfeiting;
(2) how many defendants have been convicted in the past five years for industrial or commercial counterfeiting offences; and what was the average sentence they received.
§ Mr. MellorThe available information which may be incomplete, covers prosecutions under section 1 of the Trade Descriptions Act, 1968, and is given in the following table. The fine was the most common penalty for those convicted. Prosecutions for offences involving industrial or commercial counterfeiting may be brought under other legislation, but such cases cannot be separately identified.
551W
Persons proceeded against under Trade Descriptions Act 1968 Section 1 Year Total proceeded against Total found guilty 1981 1,090 850 1982 1,110 860 1983 1,520 1,230 1984 1,500 1,140 1985 1,310 1,050