More than £1million of potentially deadly fake Apple products has been seized from a warehouse in Kingston.
The stash of chargers, adaptors, batteries, cables and headphones was found after a woman’s charger ‘nearly burst into flames’.
She had bought the fake product from a shop in Brighton, and reported it when it became ‘alarmingly hot’ while charging her Macbook.
Trading standards made a test purchase from the shop and Apple confirmed it was a dangerous fake.
They followed a paper trail from the store to another shop in Brighton, and then onto the Kingston warehouse.
An entry warrant was carried out by the Metropolitan Police, with Apple investigators and trading standards, on Tuesday, August 1.
The total value of products recovered was £1.3million – the largest in West Sussex Trading Standards’ history.
Many of the products had the same serial number, which is often the case with fakes; all official Apple products have unique numbers.
West Sussex Trading Standards team manager Richard Sargeant said: “This operation uncovered the highest value haul of fake products we have ever been involved in.
“It is so important for two reasons. Firstly we need to protect consumers from purchasing potentially unsafe products.
“And secondly recovering £1.3million of fake goods helps protect those traders who sell genuine Apple products from being undermined in the market place.”
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