Sold fake Tiffany jewelry, Ottawa woman sent to prison for three years

A woman who sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit Tiffany & Co. jewellery was sentenced to nearly three years in prison Friday. Debbie Craddock, 44, passed off the cheap replica jewellery she bought from China as the real thing, promising customers it was authentic but with minor imperfections. Craddock would buy the jewellery for between $4 and $15 a piece. She’d then sell it at home parties for between $75 and $120 each, being sure to package it in the Rhode Island-based company’s trademark little blue box. Craddock would also make her own certificates of authenticity when anyone asked for proof. Real Tiffany and Co. jewellery could sell for hundreds more. The only authorized seller of the jewellery in Canada is Holt Renfrew. The total scope of her sales wasn’t known, although 1,300 customers who paid with cheques spent $316,000 alone. Many more paid with cash and credit cards. Craddock, who had been selling the fake jewellery for six years, spent only $109,574.94 buying it, court heard. However, she persuaded her Chinese suppliers to claim she paid only $8,576.62 for the jewellery so she could avoid or reduce the amount she had to pay in duties. Craddock pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000, possession of the proceeds of crime, copyright infringement and smuggling the jewellery into Canada without paying duty under the Customs Act. Her lawyer, Michael Crystal, suggested Craddock was “wilfully blind” to the fact that the items were fake, but federal prosecutor Robert Zsigo noted she admitted to buying them from a Chinese supplier named “replicaworld.” Zsigo said when some of the customers challenged Craddock and her staff about the authenticity, they were assured the items were made in the United States and just had slight defects. ntario Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett questioned whether customers should have wondered why they were getting such a deal. “One would have thought that might have been their first clue,” she said. “If you are talking about people who are wilfully blind, we’re talking about her customers,” added Parfett. Parfett sentenced Craddock, who wore a Harley Davidson zip-up top and wiped away tears in the prisoner’s box before the plea, to 34 months and 12 days in jail. Zsigo said at the time of the Tiffany’s scam, Craddock collected $29,000 in welfare payments along with a GST credit and child tax benefit, all of which she was not entitled to. “You made a considerable amount of money persuading people they were buying seconds of Tiffany jewellery when it really wasn’t Tiffany jewellery at all,” Parfett told Craddock. Craddock, who has already spent more than six months in jail, pleaded guilty in front of a second judge Friday to credit card fraud and two counts of breaching her release conditions, including using the Internet and handling money without RCMP permission. She was sentenced to time served for those offences. Craddock’s common law husband, Sean Craddock, who was once charged himself but has since had the charges dropped, said he believes his wife is truly sorry for what she has done.