The film box ends said 36 exposures... but the side said 24.
The film was called Kodak Gold II 200... but the data panel said ISO 100/21 degrees, and the exposure guide printed inside the box was for 100 speed film!
The fraud first came to light when Blackburn, Lancashire, photo lab equipment dealer Sheer Astro Ltd was sent some boxes of the 'Kodak' film as a sample to test and consider purchasing. Although the fakers had loaded the boxes with real Kodak film so that it would pass tests, their counterfeit packaging proved their downfall.
The film box ends said 36 exposures... but the side said 24.
The film was called Kodak Gold II 200... but the data panel said ISO 100/21 degrees, and the exposure guide printed inside the box was for 100 speed film!
The counterfeiters were Frank Ward, Terence Bamber and Joseph Cairns, all from Preston, Lancashire. The court heard that they had travelled to Truro, Cornwall, to purchase one-year outdated Konica bulk film in reels for 5,000 pounds ($7,500). They visited photokina in Cologne and arranged to buy Spanish machinery to convert this into cassetted form, ultimately spending 35,000 pounds in total, but then found that fresh low-cost film from China, already packaged, would undercut their price for outdated film.
They then hit on the idea of packaging the film as Kodak Gold to salvage their investment, and had 20,000 Kodak boxes and cassette stickers printed by a Leeds firm. The printer was found not guilty on judge's directions after the jury failed to agree a verdict, and was discharged from the dock.
Ward and Cairns were jailed for 18 months and Bamber for two years.
The prosecution was a result of an investigation by an undercover agent employed by Kodak. The offences were committed between October 1992 and August 1993.
A full report with test pictures, details of all defendants, pleas, acquittals and sentences will appear in the March issue of PHOTOpro.