A district court has sentenced four college graduates to between nine months and 12 months of probation for selling knockoff luxury handbags, local media reported Monday.
The unidentified defendants, who were all women in their early 20s, ran a small shop in a local metro station, where they sold counterfeit purses, clutches and handbags bearing brand names such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Loewe, according to Zhabei District People's Court. The women came from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.
Police raided their shop in March 2012 after receiving anonymous reports that it was selling counterfeit products, according to a report in the Xinmin Evening News. Authorities confiscated 196 fake bags hidden at the shop. Police said the inventory was worth 1.46 million yuan ($235,966).
The authorities do not calculate the value of seized counterfeit products based on how much they can fetch on the street. Instead, they come up with a value that is usually far closer to the retail price of the genuine product.
Zhabei District People's Court sentenced each of the women to between nine months and 12 months in prison, but suspended the sentences so they could serve probation.
The defendants won't have to serve time in prison if they complete their probation.
The court also fined them each between 3,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan.
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