By Martha Louis – EMTVNews, Lae
Lae Police have confiscated 526 pieces of counterfeit deodorant from three shops operating in the city.
The three shops were selling a deodorant called a ‘Touch of Magic’, similar to that being sold by the Chemcare group of companies.
The three shopkeepers: Leo Lin, Sing Zheng, and Gordon Zheng were arrested and charged with selling counterfeit products.
Police were acting on a complaint made by Chemcare, who said that one of their registered products had been reproduced by the three and was being sold throughout the city.
The counterfeit product bears the same colours on the cans, but the word magic has the letter ‘a’ replaced with an ‘o’.
Lae Metropolitan Commander, Anthony Wagambie Jnr, said that on Friday police carried out two searches on two Chinese owned shops: Z-Mart and Heta Dikaka Corporation, along Air Corps Road and removed the counterfeit products from the shelves.
More than 150 fake items were confiscated from the two shops. Police also have information from buyers directing them to another shop where the identified supplier PAN PNG Trading Ltd was also selling the fake products.
Police removed 381 cans of the fake deodorant alone. The 526 pieces confiscated are valued at K2,000.
Stemming the flow of counterfeit products is a mammoth task for customs because of the amount of products coming in to PNG.
The three men have surrendered their Chinese passports and were set free on K1,000 bail each.
They appeared in Lae District Court today.
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