Two owner-operators of a Cairnlea fashion store have been ordered to pay almost $130,000 in damages for their “flagrant” selling of counterfeit clothing.
A sentence hearing on February 12 in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia revealed Xzite stores at Cairnlea and Bacchus Marsh, run by Mohamed Kaleel Abdul Cader and Raziudeen Safifdeen, sold counterfeit G-Star clothing.
On October 12, 2012, inquiry agent Victoria Evans noticed about 100 G-Star-branded shirts on display at Cairnlea and a further 50-odd at the Bacchus Marsh store. A further visit to the Cairnlea store on March 20, 2013, revealed “in excess of 200 garments in the back room”, which appeared to resemble G-Star apparel.
On July 25, 2013, Evans went to a storage unit in Makland Drive, Derrimut, operated by the accused, where she was told by Cader there were “only about 200 units of G-Star stock left”.
The court heard that Cader also distributed goods to Highpoint, Coburg, Plenty Valley, Mill Park, Altona and Broadmeadows.
More than 150 clothing items with G-Star branding were eventually seized on July 31, 2013, from the Cairnlea store.
An expert in G-Star clothing, Cameron Heymans, told the hearing the men were selling counterfeit goods.
“I know G-Star inside out,” he said.
Judge Phillip Burchardt said both Sarifdeen and Cader were “intimately involved” with the business.
“The reality is that both Mr Cader and Mr Safifdeen ran this enterprise,” he said. “[They] well knew that the garments they were importing were counterfeit … it was indeed a cynical and serious breach of the law. The evidence … shows that, whatever the amounts of G-Star the respondent dealt, it was substantially in excess of what they have admitted. It is not possible to say exactly how much the quantum was.”
He also criticised Cader’s “evasive” evidence.
The men were ordered to pay the three applicants, including G-Star Raw and G-Star Australia, $8,941.42 damages for loss of sales, $20,000 for damage to reputation, and $100,000 for further costs.
