A Chinese national pleaded guilty to breach of the Customer Protection Act when he appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday after goods valued at $80 million were seized from his wholesale.

The accused, Zianguo Zhao, had to plead using the Jamaican patois, due to the language barrier and not being able to understand English.

Zhao also pleaded guilty to five counts of breaches of the Trademark Act.

The allegations are that on December 6, 2022, a search was carried out at the Qing Qing Wholesale in Kingston. During the search, a number of products bearing the logos of Puma, Nike, Gucci, Polo and Louis Vitton were discovered.

Zhao was accused of misleading customers that the products sold at his wholesale store are authentic.

The court was told that the products were valued at $80 million.

Disputing that figure, however, his attorney told Senior Parish Judge, Lori-Ann Cole-Montague that the figure the police had provided via a document signed by Zhao is nowhere near the amount on the prosecution’s file.

“He was not aware of that figure. Eighty million is far more than what he had signed for,” the attorney said.

It was then agreed in court that the figure would not affect the outcome of the case.

When being pleaded, Zhao said, “A di fuss time.”

Zhao was ordered to return to court on April 28 for sentencing.