Student is jailed over fake headphone web con

A university student who ran a £25,000-a-month fake headphone racket from his Sandwell home was today starting a 12-month jail sentence.

Student Surmit Aoulik, aged 29, bought the bogus Bose products from China for around £10 and sold them on the internet for £39.99 – half the price of the real thing, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday.

The Wolverhampton University student imported 4,840 sets in May and June 2009, prosecutor Mark Chapman said.

They generated £75,900 worth of trade in 12 weeks with cash coming from thousands of customers through web payment site PayPal.

Aoulik sold the headphones through a string of websites while pretending to be based in Birmingham or Bournemouth, with the bogus business turning over around £150,000 in seven months, the court heard.

He spent the cash on a lavish lifestyle that included booking fleets of black cabs to take his friends on expensive nights out in London.

Sandwell Trading Standards officers launched an investigation in April 2009 after a customer complained a headset was counterfeit.

His fears were confirmed by Bose who estimate the racket cost them £160,000.

Investigators tracked the websites to Aoulik's home in Laurel Drive, Smethwick.

It was raided in October 2009 as he was about to start the third year of a computer course. Aoulik admitted six sample counterfeiting charges over a seven month period and was jailed for 12 months.