12 Sep 2008

Solomons shopkeeper fined for selling fake cigarettes

9:55 am on 12 September 2008

A Solomon Islands court has fined a Chinese store owner more than 90 thousand US dollars for importing and selling fake Windfield brand cigarettes.

Ocean Sky Shop owner Reginald Xie was found guilty by the Magistrates Court in August, and this week customs delivered a letter to Xie's business explaining the fine which includes customs and duty taxes as well as the value of 42 boxes of fake cigarettes.

But Xie who also co-owns a number of shops around Point Cruz is reported to have fled to the United States.

Customs controller Nathan Kama says the fine is three times the value of the fake goods.

"As the result of this fellow counterfeiter and potential future evasion of taxes by people who are importing cigarettes, me fella sign me one fellow MOU on Tuesday for sort of committing each other to share informations and assistance for investigating this sort of trading."

Nathan Kama says this is the first instance of mass scale importation of fake goods.