Urban Art Association

"had been authenticated by Pictures On Walls the Banksy specialists"

sorry i read that wrong...

it says "THEY informed"

i know mate, half the forum were involved in it. but maybe people dont want to talk about it.

Whoever you are, you have been misinformed and by looking at the dates of your posts , you are breaking the blanket ban that was put on anyone talking about this case in the public domain by judge Matthews. Your post and others were handed to the judge herself and an investigation is under way. Here are a few true events that happened in this so called case. At the pre trial which was at southwark crown court on the 17th of may. Judge Rivlin QC said that the cps's case was a mess and they didn't have the two main witnesses, i.e. Banksy and Vivienne Westwood. Because those witnesses are not interested and the defendants are not denying they sold these prints, where is this going. Judge Rivlin said that this case is not happening at Southwark crown court, His words were "this is a serious fraud court and this is not a serious fraud case “ The trial was moved to Kingston crown court. There were two weeks of pre trial and legal arguments and the trial never happened. In those two weeks is was proven there is no copyright on Banksy's work and there was no formal agreement between the artist and his agent and POW. Therefore no case regarding selling fake Banksy prints. Then the charge was changed to selling fake POW prints, which in hind sight was never the case. So would it have been a fair trial? i don't think so! A deal was reached with both counsels and a plea was entered. Now this was the first time a guilty plea was agreed because two years ago, when all this started they were being accused of selling £1.2 million pounds worth of fake stuff, and there was other items still being held and others still involved, so yes - Not guilty -because it was NOT the correct charge. It went from £1.2 million down to £30.000. So as you can see what was it all really about? For your information it was 12 prints and none signed and none sold in auction houses. And despite your earlier accusation that banksy screens were found in their flat – they never found any screens because they never existed and they never printed any banksys.
So -regarding your title of art forgers - all they were, were two collectors that bought prints on the second hand market and from galleries around London that the police claim are fake...looks like they are the one's that were conned! oh yeah and what started this case? the unknown art forger that sold a fake Banksy canvas for £500.000 at Bonhams..and they cant find him or her - like Banksy..who ever they are!

I smell a large fetid rat on this thread

I have cleaned this thread up a bit

Can I ask that if Freerange wants to keep talking about "cocks" that he does it elsewhere please. Thank you!

Conmen avoid jail for selling fake Banksy prints

By Robert Dex, Press Association

Thursday, 1 July 2010

A pair of "old-fashioned conmen" who pleaded guilty to selling fake prints they claimed were the work of graffiti artist Banksy avoided a jail sentence today.

Lee Parker, 45, and Grant Champkins-Howard, 44, sold copies of genuine numbered prints on the internet shopping site eBay, Kingston Crown Court in south west London heard.

Passing suspended sentences of 12 months for both men, Judge Suzan Matthews said: "Neither of you should be under any illusion that I regard both of you as nothing more than a pair of old-fashioned conmen.
"You saw a way, and exploited a way, of making a quick and easy profit."

The court heard the pair, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, were fans of the anonymous Bristol-based graffiti artist and had collected posters and prints of his work for years.

Prosecutor Richard Mandel said they decided to cash in as his work became more valuable and made more than £50,000 by passing off their copies as being from official limited-edition numbered print runs made early on in the artist's career.

The original prints, which were initially sold by a company set up by the artist's agent, are now sought-after collector's items.
Mr Mandel said they forged ownership documents and added official numbers and stamps to some of the prints, which then sold for up to £2,000.

The court heard they tried to cover their tracks by refunding some customers when they complained.

Mr Mandel said they used eBay to ensure a "global marketplace" for their fraud which undermined people's faith in the wider art market.
Mr Mandel said: "It stands to reason that persistent fraud on eBay undermines the integrity of that now very important marketplace."
The pair were arrested in April 2008 after suspicions about some of the prints being sold were raised on an internet forum.

Philippa McAtasney QC, defending Parker, said he had offered to re-mortgage his home to pay back people to whom he sold prints.
She said the self-employed plumber from Eastbourne was "an ordinary, hard-working man".

Nigel Peters QC, defending Champkins-Howard, said his client, a roofer from south Croydon, had already spent 93 days in Wandsworth prison after breaching bail conditions.

Judge Matthews said some of the pair's victims were experts on the works of Banksy while others were more naive.

She said: "Regardless of their knowledge, they were all conned. All were tricked."

She ordered the men to complete 240 hours of unpaid work in the next 12 months and told them they face restraining orders preventing them from selling on the internet.

Costs will be decided at a later hearing.

Two charges of possession of items that could be used in fraud and another charge of conspiracy to defraud were ordered to lie on file.
Speaking outside court, a Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the force recovered 120 prints during the investigation which, if sold as genuine, could fetch more than £200,000.

Detective Constable Ian Lawson, of the Metropolitan Police's art and antiques unit, said it was a "lucrative and unscrupulous scam".

An eBay spokesman said: "We are delighted to hear of today's sentences, having worked closely with the Metropolitan Police since September 2008 to bring this case to court.

"Our long-standing commitment to this case highlights our intolerance for those fraudsters who attempt to sell fake items on our site. We will continue to build on our work with law enforcement agencies to make sure that justice is served if anyone decides to try their luck."

ebay dont care, otherwise they would remove 8,999 of the 9,200 items under the search term 'banksy'

Would POW be ablr to do much if you replicased their screenprints, but didn't stamp sign or number them, and maybe even wrote "fake" on the back, and sold them as fakes on ebay...?

pics

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291171/Conmen-Lee-Parker-Grant-Champkins-Howard-sold-fake-Banksy-prints-eBay.html

On the video about this on the beeb website, fast forward to 0:41 seconds... Is this the POW storeroom?

and this, quite simply, is why i would never ever buy a print off of ebay...

the person i felt most sorry for was Dora at POW. Her name was banded around on every piece of 'coa' paper.