Officers from the Border Patrol Police 425 unit raided the Panda Beauty store near the near Naka Market (also known as the “Weekend Market”) on Wirat Hongyok Rd, Wichit, at 10:30am.
At the scene, the officers led by the unit’s deputy commander Capt Teerasak Narasri found a cache of cartons containing hundreds of boxes of beauty creams featuring the brand name Rayanskin, specifically the “Ray Facial Mask” and “Ray Facial Gold Mask” products.
Jarin Cheyong, a lawyer representing Rayanskin International Co Ltd, explained that Rayanskin had specifically discontinued producing those products due the scale of fake merchandise being produced to illegally lure customers to buy the inferior products.
“Rayanskin stopped producing ‘Ray Facial Mask’ and ‘Ray Facial Gold Mask’ because there are a lot of copies. Instead, the company launched the ‘Anjeri’ range of cosmetics,” Mr Jarin said.
“We were afraid that customers might misunderstand that the fake products were actually the genuine products and that people might be affected by the chemicals in the fake products,” he explained.
Capt Teerasak said the raid followed his unit receiving a complaint from the manufacturer Rayanskin.
“And this morning we found these products that are not registered (as required by law),” he said.
Other plain evidence proving the products were fake were discovered on the boxes themselves, which were missing elements that are included on the genuine products, The Phuket News was told.
“The shop owner will be charged for breaches of the both Cosmetic Act and the Consumer Protection Act for selling unregistered, unlabelled cosmetics and selling counterfeit goods,” Capt Teerasak said.
“The maximum penalty is a fine of up to B400,000 or up to four years in jail, or both,” he noted.
At the scene the officers also found the certificate of incorporation for Panda International Co Ltd, which is the operating company for the shop.
Several suspects were taken into custody during the raid, but the number of people and what positions they held in serving the company were not revealed.
“All of the suspects were taken to Wichit Police Station for more investigation,” Capt Teerasak said.