Lubin police officers from the department for combating economic crime arrested two men suspected of fraud involving the delivery of hydraulic filters to a company operating in Lubin County. The detainees are a 35-year-old and a 21-year-old from Lubin. The losses caused by the criminal activities of the two fraudsters amount to more than PLN 4 million. The VAT fraudulently claimed amounts to another half a million zlotys.
Police had been working on the case for some time. It emerged that the 35-year-old man from Lubin had established a company and then entered a tender to supply hydraulic filters to one of the companies in Lubin County. The specifications clearly stated the type of filters ordered, manufactured by a specific company.
The man bought counterfeit filters of considerably lower value and, consequently, lower quality. He then applied the company’s trademarks to them. They were subsequently packed into counterfeit boxes prepared by the 21-year-old. The perpetrators made more than PLN 1,000 on each such product.
According to the officers’ findings, the company ordering the filters lost more than PLN 2 million as a result of the perpetrators’ activities. The company manufacturing the dedicated filters also suffered losses. (In total, this amounts to more than PLN 4 million).
The investigation is ongoing; investigators do not rule out further arrests. The suspects’ assets, worth nearly PLN 1 million, have also been secured.
The 35-year-old has already been temporarily detained at the prosecutor’s request. The 21-year-old remains under police supervision and is banned from leaving the country.
Both suspects face up to 10 years in prison.