A Hubei Province husband and wife have been sentenced to probation for selling phony branded clothing on taobao.com, the online shopping site, Pudong New Area People's Court said Thursday.
The court sentenced the wife to four years of probation and fined her 150,000 yuan ($24,124), according to a court press release. It gave her husband two years of probation and fined him 100,000 yuan.
The wife opened two stores on taobao.com at the end of 2009 to sell counterfeit clothing from brands such as Polo and Burberry. The wife handled the day-to-day running of the site while her husband took care of the technical maintenance.
The couple moved from Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, to Shanghai in February 2011 after the husband was transferred. They rented an apartment in Kangqiao, Pudong New Area, where they stored their products.
The couple bought clothing from Dongguan, Guangdong Province, and Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, at prices ranging from 60 yuan to 130 yuan per item, the court said. They then sold the clothing to their customers for 100 yuan to 300 yuan an item. From October 2009 to July 2012, the couple took in 460,700 yuan.
Police arrested the wife on July 9, 2012, and confiscated 360 items of clothing worth 13,900 yuan. Her husband later turned himself in to police.
The court sentenced the wife to three years in prison with a four-year reprieve. The husband was sentenced to two years in prison with a two-year reprieve. Neither will have to serve time in prison if they meet the terms of their probation.