Will someone please do something about what has happened on Bay Street. All over the town there are more shops opening up selling illegal knock-off bags right out in the open. Is the government complicit in this illegal trade? They certainly are aware of it as straw vendors have got around the ban by opening up shops 50 feet from the straw market that they walk the tourists across Bay Street onto Market Street and sell the bags.
According to the Counterfeit Crime Division at the Royal Bahamas Police Force, buying counterfeit items is a crime and offenders could be fined up to $100,000 or sentenced to five years in prison. Obviously not anymore it is not. This looks like another scandal this government will eventually have to face.
In December 2006, customs, immigration and police officers confiscated thousands of fake designer handbags, watches, clothes and other counterfeit items in a raid at an East Street South warehouse. More than 5,000 Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton and Chanel handbags were among the plethora of false designer labels that were seized. The government knows that the laws do exist but, apparently they will not be enforced under their rule.
When the police began harassing the vendors of these bags a year or more ago, sympathetic politicians made some phone calls and there has been little police action since.
The bags never were banned, they just moved across the street! All the while the government sits idly by and openly allows this illegal activity to take place.
Kenrick Thompson
Nassau, The Bahamas
