Bar worker found guilty of selling fake hard liquor

A man in his 20s was given a suspended jail term and ordered to pay a fine for manufacturing more than a hundred bottles filled with fake hard liquor gathered from client’s leftovers, the Busan District Court said Monday.

The 29-year-old bar employee in Daegu was sentenced to serve 10 months in prison suspended for two years and pay the collected penalty of 2.2 million won ($2,061).

The defendant faced charges of violating the Food Sanitation Act and Trademark Act after police discovered that he had bought leftover alcohol from an employee at a different bar last year in November. 

It is said the man sold 118 fake bottles of hard liquor by firmly attaching authentic alcoholic brand labels with a blow dryer over 16 occasions during a two-month period. The man admitted to police that he received 2.2 million won in profit for the sales.

Police further discovered that the man had bought 1,000 sets of fake alcohol labels from a bar employee and re-sold the fake bottles to various bars and pubs around the area.

The court, however, handed the man a suspended prison term, citing the financial compensation agreement between the defendant and victims.

By Catherine Chung (cec82@heraldcorp.com)