A man who sold £1.2m worth of fake vinyl records caught out by a fan of The Clash
Richard Hutter’s lucrative business of selling fake vinyl records was exposed after a fan of The Clash attempted to buy one of their albums from him, only to find his purchase was poor quality.
After he was refused a refund from Hutter, the customer filed a complaint with trading standards officers, who discovered the record was fake. Hutter had made a whopping £1.2million profit over six years from selling counterfeit vinyl, ranging from albums by Amy Winehouse to The Beatles.
When the 55-year-old businessman from Hampshire had his house searched, officers discovered that he had sold 1,000s of records through multiple websites, including eBay.
Although he maintained his innocence, stating that he was unaware his stock was fake, he later pleaded guilty and faced a four-month jail sentence, suspended for 24 months. He has also been ordered to wear an ankle tag for three months, complete 250 hours of unpaid labour and pay a £373,000 order.
Martin Thursby from Dorset Trading Standards stated (via the Guardian), “The LPs Hutter was selling were generally good copies that came to light because they were bought by avid fans of the music who could spot the small differences which showed the records were counterfeit.”
“The offences involved selling and distributing counterfeit items and money laundering. Mr Hutter did not carry out any checks as to the provenance of what he bought and sold.”
Richard Tutt sentenced Hutton, claiming, “Your benefit from your criminal activity over that period of six years was £1,274.222.84p, and I make a confiscation order of £373,589.64p.”
Ultimately, Hutton pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property, selling copyrighted vinyl records, and selling counterfeit material. Andrew Barkley defended his client by referring to him as “remorseful”.
