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Published: 03 June 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY and RÓISÍN GADELRAB

A COUNTERFEIT clothing fraudster linked to one of the biggest ever raids on fake goods in Camden Town is believed to have fled to the Far East to avoid a jail sentence.

Investigators fear Swee-Teong Chew has already left the country after skipping bail following his conviction for conspiracy and a range of trademark infringements.

He was caught in neighbouring Islington with thousands of fake goods, including copies of Gucci, Versace, Cartier and Louis Vuitton clothes and handbags.

In his absence, he was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday. Police have been issued with a warrant for his immediate arrest. 

Chew, 42, was successfully prosecuted by Islington Council’s trading standards team after a raid on storage units in Holloway uncovered a stockpile of goods thought to be destined for a black market across that borough.

But the New Journal can reveal that officials in Camden were also closely watching the case unfold as court papers linked the defendant to a warehouse in King’s Terrace, Camden Town, found crammed from floor to ceiling with fake belts, jeans, sunglasses and bags four years ago.

Acting on a tip-off, investigators in that case uncovered what is still regarded as the biggest- ever collection of black-market items confiscated in Camden, with a street value close to £1.5million. 

Nobody has ever been convicted of running the operation.

The New Journal had exclusive access to the premises in the aftermath and a clipping of our front-page story was found in an expensive Edgware home owned by Chew when police went to question him in connection with the Islington investigation,

The cutting from an edition published in July 2006 formed part of the prosecution’s bundle of papers at Chew’s trial as jurors were told he was linked to the Camden Town warehouse. 

The raid has gone down in local folklore as causing a “drought” of bogus goods for several months afterwards.

Legal proceedings against Malaysian-born Chew, however, were brought to a halt when Camden’s trading standards team were told he had quit the country and leads to trace him hit dead ends.

Officials said they were “staggered that he came out of the woodwork again” when they learned of the Islington case, which centred on a search of the Holloway storage units at the end of  2007.

Islington Council confirmed its counterparts in Camden had provided statements for the prosecution.

Chew, a father-of-three, had in the past run a legitimate fashion shop in Camden Town and was well known by traders around the Lock for many years.

But in Islington, his trial heard, Chew had taken to dealing in counterfeit goods, thought to have been mailed from China in small packages to avoid the suspicions of customs. About 12,000 items were retrieved at the storage centre in Holloway Road. If they had been real, the pile would have been worth £500,000.

Chew denied the charges but a jury convicted him last month. He was released with a curfew order ahead of Friday’s sentencing hearing. Checks revealed he had stopped reporting as required to a police station in Haringey. 

Detectives now face the daunting task of trying to track him down. The court has already heard that a passport with the alias “Richard Yang” was found inside his home in the same search which uncovered the New Journal clipping.

A letter signed by “Robert Chew” asking for loading and unloading space outside King’s Terrace was also used in prosecution court papers to try and link him to the premises.

The building at the centre of the operation has since been refurbished and the new activity there is completely unrelated and not part of any investigation.

Christopher Jones, head of Trading Standards at Camden, said: “What we found at the warehouse in Camden Town a few years ago was quite sophisticated. There was a workshop to brand items and boxes and boxes of fake Chloe handbags that would be worth £850 each if they were real.”

The fake goods confiscated in Camden Town have been held in storage by the council, but will now be donated to the police to use in dog training exercises.

Mr Jones said: “After 18 months, we had to look at the time and resources we were spending trying to trace him when we had already been told he had left the country. As far as we were concerned, the operation had been closed down and it had made an important difference to Camden Town.”

He said that when counterfeit sellers were stopped, there was often a “vacuum” which was then filled by replacement racketeers.

“The market for counterfeit goods is still there but in general it is down in Camden Town,” Mr Jones said. 

“Tourists still buy fake goods in Camden Town, which you can’t understand. 

“The handle will come off after five minutes and then they go back home thinking bad of Camden Town as a place. 

“We’ve put a lot of work into cracking down on this and I was staggered when I heard this man had come out of the woodwork again. We thought he had left the country. 

“I’m glad at the result that Islington got with their prosecution because it shows that undermining the legitimate traders is not acceptable.”

Councillor Paul Smith, Islington Council’s Labour environment chief, said: “Our trading standards team worked incredibly hard to bring this case to court and our officers involved were personally commended by the judge. We will always prosecute in cases like this.”