Colourful characters or cunning crooks?

NOT so long ago, we ran articles about a woman who was fined nearly €1,000 for posting on social media a photo of a police car parked in a disabled space (the fine was reversed), and another about a woman who was fined for driving her invalid carriage on a pavement, but it is not very often that we write about the arrest of ‘Looky Looky’ men for the sale of illegal copies of designer goods.

Some people might think that the designer and film companies make enough money as it is and shouldn’t be worried about a few poor migrants (in the country legally or otherwise) earning a living by selling these goods, but if studied in the cold light of day, these people are effectively professional criminals practising deception on the streets almost with impunity.

€100m is the estimated street value of counterfeit goods seized in Spain during 2015, which suggests that the value of such goods left in circulation is enormous

Restaurant fight 
No looky looky

ONE restaurant in Guadalmina has a sign outside which basically says they will call the police about anyone who tries to sell illegal goods to their clients, although in fairness they also have a sign that says they are Spanish, conservative, catholic and if you don’t like that don’t bother coming in!

On the face of things, they have to be admired, many of them are French speakers, who have learnt English and Spanish and after what could have been a great deal of trouble, and have managed to get into Spain and are trying to earn a living which means they don’t resort to outright robbery.

The problem is, of course, that they are part of a giant conspiracy to defraud companies of money, reduce tax collected, sell sub-standard goods to the innocent and ignorant, and who knows what circumstances and conditions those who produce these shoddy goods are working under.

Why is this blatant and highly irritating practice allowed to continue and why don’t the authorities actually do something about cracking down on both the selling of the items and the immigration status of those selling them?

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