Sports fakes ripped off fans

Feb 20 2008 by Geoff Johnson, The Journal

SPORTS fans were conned into spending thousands of pounds on faked autographs of their heroes, a court heard yesterday.

Autographs of stars including Jonny Wilkinson, Michael Owen and David Beckham were “systematically” forged and sold by businessmen Graeme Walker and Faisal Madani, a jury at Chester Crown Court was told.

Other counterfeit goods, it was heard, included replicas of England international caps and Worthington and European Cup final shirts which were sold as genuine.

Walker, 45, is accused of more than 50 counts of cheating the customers of his shop, Sporting Icons Limited, which has a store in Chester city centre and also operates on the internet site eBay.

Madani, 43, described in court as the “middle man”, faces 20 counts of supplying the forgeries.

Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, opened the trial saying: “Those charges are only a sample of the many hundreds of forged and counterfeit goods either sold or offered for sale by Sporting Icons.

“Not every item in the shop was a forgery. The bogus stock was mixed in with genuine stock. We say that was all part of the fraud – by hiding the fakes among the genuine goods it was much easier to deceive the public.”

Mr Thomas said prosecutors had relied on evidence from a handwriting expert and some stars themselves, including Wilkinson, Owen and Steven Gerrard who have denied signing the items.

Some of them are expected to give evidence, or have statements read to the jury.

Walker, of Mountain View Close, Connah’s Quay, Deeside, and Madani, of Grange Road, Bramhall, Stockport, Greater Manchester, deny the charges and deny the items are forgeries.

The pair claim the goods were bought in good faith and from reputable sources.

The jury were told that Sporting Icons sold not just sporting memorabilia. In photographs of the shop and print-outs of the website they saw framed autographs and pictures of Hollywood legends Laurel and Hardy, Mae West and Rock Hudson, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa and real-life boxing champion Mohammed Ali.

Musical stars whose autographs and pictures were on sale included the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Queen and Nat King Cole.

Mr Thomas told the jury the bulk of the fraud took place between 2003, when England lifted the Rugby World Cup thanks to Jonny Wilkinson’s drop-kick, and 2005.

He said: “The defendants, we say, betrayed the trust of the public. In short, they were ripping fans off.”