Kanjabanga sued for counterfeit
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday September 8, 2015 16:16
The local company trading as Longhurst Holdings, has been at the centre of investigations from the HP and the Criminal Investigations Department since 2013.
The company is accused of selling HP products including ink cartridges and toners at a cheaper price, raising suspicions of them being counterfeit. HP instituted a civil case against Longhurst Holdings that has one of its directors, Gabriel Kanjabanga, leading the defence yesterday when they appeared before the Gaborone High Court.
Hewlett Packard alleges that the goods that were seized from Kanjabanga’s company were counterfeit. They had engaged a company that deals with providing a risk consultancy and investigations services in counterfeit goods from South Africa.
According to documents before court, on March 2013, Chasewaterford Company was instructed by HP SA to carry out investigations regarding complaints made by HP partners and distributors in Botswana, relating to HP being sold by LongHurst.
“The company was selling the products at a greatly reduced price, which aroused suspicions that the goods may be counterfeit, and on April 2013, we engaged Owen Mclntyre from Chasewaterford to conduct a test purchase to establish the product’s legitimacy,” reads the documents.
After he (Mclntyre) purchased two HP toner cartridges and identifying both as counterfeit due to their flaws in security features, the case was reported to the criminal investigations department.
“The findings were reported to the Deputy Director of Criminal Investigations Department. The findings were that the security label floating characters of a ‘tick and Ok’ did not move. All HP products have the two security features and they move in opposite directions when moved and examined closely,” read court papers. The investigators also allege that the security labels on the two toners purchased were not properly glued to the toner box and were loose, with HP company arguing that their genuine goods would not have loose security labels.
The company further charge that their suspicions were heightened when the United Nations office in Botswana complained of HP products purchased from a company called Litco, who indicated they bought the products from Longhurst Holdings. However, Kanjabanga has maintained that the company has always thought the goods were genuine as they bought them from suppliers in Hong Kong and Dubai.
The goods were reportedly seized from the company during investigations by the sheriffs, but were later returned after Kanjabanga filed a court case against thae company for unlawful seizure of goods. Following an order from court that the goods could be seized again from Longhurst for further investigations, only a few were recovered. Some of them will be used in court as exhibits. The case continues today for arguments.