They were STOLEN
Illegal sale of Playmobil figures on Ebay and at Bugibba
Posted on June 15th, 2009
Following investigations into reports made by the Playmobil company in Malta, the police arraigned two people in court, accused of breaching intellectual property rights by illegally selling stolen Playmobil figures.
Francis Difesa, a 51-year-old man from St Paul’s Bay, and Nadine Cutajar, a 26-year-old woman from Ghaxaq, were separately arraigned with distributing these stolen figures and with breaching intellectual property rights. They both pleaded not guilty.
Nadine Cutujar was also accused of selling the Playmobil figures on Ebay, while Francis Difesa was accused of supplying a Bugibba shop with these figures. The shop owner will be charged separately in the next few days.
Playmobil representative Anna Agius told the court that the figures had not been made to the normal Playmobil standards and could also jeopardise the jobs of the 800 workers working at the factory. She also said that the Playmobil figures were being sold at ridiculously low prices at the Bugibba shop. She also added that some of the figures hadn’t even been put on the market.
Playmobil Malta had reported the theft of various figures and their parts and that they were being sold on Ebay and from a shop in Bugibba. The figures included modified knights in various macabre poses.