Worth a read - owner of Croft Militaria convicted of making fake UK gallantry medals: Croft Militaria boss convicted of fraud - Militaria History
As I believe you will already know, many medal collecting enthusiasts spent a great deal of time and effort to have this individual investigated and ultimately dealt with.
I would have hoped medals were covered by a Crown/Mint interest rather than just being local trading standards. This is a crime beyond simple fraud surely?
From what I've read elsewhere about this I got the impression it was the fake Poppy badges that got him in trouble (which it absolutely should) rather than the dodgy medals, I wonder if it was just the medals if he would have got away with it
I doubt it. Fakes are endemic. I remember in the early 2000's every collector forum was full of threads where all the dealers were calling each other out as forgers/fakers and a lot of respected big names were exposed. It did not seem to effect their sales as they are still in business. Anyone remember Roger Honts?
If this dealer was doing what the Police seem to have alleged, making re-strikes of decorations that fooled medal collectors, then it was a real waste of his talents. More likely that the blanks were coming in from abroad. He certainly wasn't doing his own enamelling on that scale. It does seem to have been the trade mark / copyright fraud that got him into real trouble.
Fakes are endemic and many of us knowingly buy them, especially cap badges and uniform insignia, as 'gap fillers' for collections. Where this chap seems to have fallen down is that, rather than selling fake aka 'restrike' or copy medals etc and describing them as such he: 1. Misrepresented their provenance in a fraudulent way 2. Infringed RBL copyright. Also a case of Caveat Emptor?