A company who supplied fake Willy Wonka bars containing golden tickets has been ordered to pay more than £6,000 at court.
Kirkcrown Ltd, trading as Americandy, was found guilty of possessing counterfeit goods after they failed to attend a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The company was taken to court after a woman complained to Manchester City Council’s trading standards of purchasing the chocolate bar from a store on Corn Exchange for three pounds.
The bar, which has packaging similar to how it looked in the 1971 film, appeared to contain a golden ticket which is only present in five others however there was no contact information to claim the prize.
Councillor Kate Chappell, Manchester City Council’s executive member for the environment, said: “Customers in Manchester or elsewhere could easily have been duped into thinking these were the genuine article and were worth paying three pounds for, but this was probably just value chocolate and the golden ticket prize was utterly worthless.
“I’d like to praise our trading standards officers for making sure these cheap fakes, which would have made the suppliers as much as £2,000, off Manchester’s shop shelves.”
Nestle who own the trademark for Willy Wonka chocolate denied that the fake bars had any affiliation to their company and more than 600 of them were seized from the Americandy stores on Corn Exchange.
Kirkcrown Ltd were fined £4,000 with £2,727 costs and were ordered that all seized items are to be forfeited.
The company was invited to attend an interview but didn’t turn up and also failed to attend two earlier court hearings.
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures via YouTube, with thanks.
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