The crime, which took place in the mid 1980s, centred on low power TTL devices manufactured by Texas Instruments, which had recently issued a ‘last time buy’ notice for them. As it happened, these parts were used in an MoD torpedo programme and the manufacturer was understandably keen to get hold of some devices to keep for spares.
Seeing an opportunity, Bean apparently went to various sources and acquired a lot of reject material in DIL ceramic packaging. In true counterfeiting fashion, he removed the symbology from the packages and rebranded them as the military grade low power TTL devices for which the manufacturer was looking.
Once it got hold of the parts, the company became suspicious and asked TI to take a look at them. It didn’t take TI long to determine that it hadn’t made the parts.
Not long after telling the manufacturer the news, the MoD police got involved. They determined the supplier and raided his premises, seizing assets to the value of £150,000, including rudimentary printing equipment used to rebrand the parts; even the AVO meter he claimed to have tested the parts with.
He was prosecuted and, after a week long trial, found guilty and sentenced to 30months in jail.
One of the discussion points at the recent ESCO anticounterfeiting seminar was that, while there are now counterfeiters behind bars in the US, why have there been no UK prosecutions since Mr Bean in the mid 1980s?
And nobody had an answer to such questions as ‘are we really good at dealing with counterfeiters?’, ‘are we simply not catching the parts?’ or ‘is there not enough effort being made?’.
Ian Blackman, from the International Institute of Obsolescence Management, said: “Are we winning the fight? Some say yes, but they are wrong. But we are making progress.”
