Thank you everyone. My brother went to the solicitor today and they will get tomorrow. He said he would get back to us with the costs. He did say he would try for legal aid, if legal aid doesn't pay then everyone in my family would pay considering my brother's ill health. I will update when I get more information. At the moment the solicitor seems to think he would get a fine and he is particularly interested why it took them two years to take him to court.

many thanks. I will try that tomorrow.

Thank you for the suggestions. We didn't approach anyone and as far as I am aware he wouldn't qualify for legal aid. He has a home under his name mortgage free and he is still waiting for his benefit claim.

Sorry about that I would upload them again.

Insight: Previously they did find cigarettes and in court he pleaded guilty because it was true On this occasion they did not have any knowledge about this and the assumption is they were probably left from the previous seizure. They were not selling any duty free cigarettes or tobacco Just before this seizure the shop was broken into twice and they stopped stocking too much cigarettes because the owner was abroad due to an emergency The wrapper found in the bin were actually genuine UK duty paid tobacco Owner would be going to court however, since he had a stroke he doesn’t remember everything and at times could get confused with questions After this they visited again but didn’t find anything Please advice if any of the above should be included in the statement. Also, on this day I am assuming he would only be required to plead guilty or not guilty or would they go ahead with the hearing? Thank you in advance for all your help and advice.

y Some of the points we are thinking of making at the moment: There is no evidence that we were trying to sell the products He never offered the tobacco to sell to anyone The product was found inside the ceiling so how was it exposed They said they found the tobacco wrapper in the bin but where is the evidence (photo on the sheet) is for the duty free in foreign language while the wrapper found in the bin has English warnings They should have made an effort to get a translator involved when questioning a non English speaking employee or contacted Mr. xx for more information. While they requested Mr. xx to attend two interviews while abroad they never contacted after he returned back and replied to the questionnaire explaining he was abroad They spent 16 hours investigating where as if they contacted me they would have required less time and the payment would have been much less Please advice as this is the first time I am dealing with anything like this.

Thank you! Contrary to: Section 92(1)© of the Trade Marks Act 1994 'On or about 15th August 2013 you did have in your possession or control in the course of business, goods, namely five grams pouches of Golden Virginia , owned by imperial Tobacco Limited, such possession or control being with view to offer or expose for sale the said goods'.

I hope someone can help. Trading standard visited my brother's shop in 2011 and recovered duty free cigarettes. He was then asked to go to court because some of the tobacco were found to be counterfeit which he didn't have knowledge off. After going to court he pleaded guilty and was fined around £800 (can't remember exact figure). In 2013 they came again and recovered 5 tobacco from the same place while he was abroad, they confiscated the products, then called him for interview twice while he was still abroad. After he came back they wrote to him again to fill out a application form. On the application form he explained he was abroad when hence he couldn't attend interviews and the tobacco found was probably left from the previous raid as since then he never sold any of this item. They decided to take him to court on the 4th June and he received the letter a week ago which doesn't leave him with much options. Since then he sold his business (2014), he had a major stroke and needs support to do anything. I understand he needs to go to court but as he owns his property and still waiting for his benefit claim he wouldn't get legal aid. He is in lot of debts at the moment so he can't afford legal help. They have sent pictures of the tobacco product and I can see it having price mark for 5.95 euro which I believe was the price around 2011 while in 2013 the price mark was over 7 euro. He is planning to plead not guilty. Any help will be highly appreciated as he is very worried.

I paid cash and collected from his address. I know this makes it worse but it was a Gumtree purchase.

Hope someone can help me. I purchased a phone two weeks ago which was working fine until few days ago. Upon research I got to know the phone was blocked/blacklisted by EE. I tried contacting the seller, filed complaint with action fraud and contacted EE but no one is being helpful. Seller has switched his phone off and the address he used apparently he no longer lives there. His brother said he went to Pakistan. Action fraud I know they wouldn’t do anything. I emailed EE CEO and received a call back from the executive department while at work. I called on few occasions but the person I spoke to said the executive who called me is on 2 weeks holiday so she would address my concern. All she said was I shouldn’t have purchased a phone from third party and there is nothing they can do. My argument was that there was no way for me to know this phone belongs to EE, it was unlocked and sealed. The seller was happy for me to collect from outside his house and I had no reason to doubt him. When I purchased the phone I tried my sim and worked fine. By blocking the phone they are punishing me and not the person who they claim obtained the phone fraudulently. The phone is not reported stolen nor has insurance claim the problem is the seller never paid his bill. Is there anything I can do? At least when buying a car I could do checks to confirm there is no outstanding debt but with phones there is nothing I could have done to avoid this situation. I didn’t want to get in a new contract so best option available was to buy a sim free phone. Thank you in advance for your replies and help