British and Thai man arrested for flogging fake watches online
A British and a Thai man are in custody after a sting operation in Pattaya caught them selling counterfeit brand name watches online to foreign buyers at a huge markup. Police identified them as 43 year old Mark Peter Dorey and 45 year old Virut Bua-raem.
After a tipoff, an officer pretended to be a buyer and contacted Dorey. He offered to buy 12 fake Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Cartier watches for 123,500 baht. Police made an appointment to meet at a coffee shop at a shopping centre in south Pattaya. From there, Dorey took the officer by motorbike to another shopping centre on Pattaya Beach Road. Dorey handed over the watches receiving the money and was quickly arrested, according to local media.
Dorey soon implicated Virut, aka “Ae,” who was arrested with another 40 counterfeit watches.
Dorey says he bought the watches from Virut for about 500 baht each and resold them online for about 12,000 baht. Dorey told police he advertised the watches on Instagram and sent them to clients by parcel post. He said all of his customers were foreigners and paid directly into a bank account.
The two are charged with possessing counterfeit goods with intent to sell, an offence liable to a jail term of up to four years and/or a fine up to 400,000 baht
More than 2,200 counterfeit luxury brand watches were seized 11 months ago from 10 shops at two popular markets in Hat Yai, southern Thailand. The brand names included Rolex, Patek Philippe, Rado, Gucci, Richard Mille and Chanel.
SOURCE: The Chiang Rai Times | The Pattaya News
