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SCMP Reporter

A Hong Kong detective agency has been hired to swoop on the multimillion-dollar trade in fake Teletubbies across Asia.

 About 50 agents are buying counterfeits as demand for goods spawned by the hit children's television series soars ahead of Christmas.

 Undercover operations are being run locally and in Singapore, Malaysia and on the mainland, where the fakes are thought to be made.

 Detectives posing as parents are buying counterfeit Teletubbies goods - including VCDs, talking toys, backpacks, T-shirts, cakes and key-rings - from stalls and shops.

 Former police officer Frank Knight, whose agency Asian Security & Investigation Services is handling the Teletubbies probe, said evidence gathered by his agents would be passed on to law enforcement agencies.

 'The people who will do the major work here will be the Government - the intellectual property division of Customs and Excise.'  The BBC, which owns the rights to the Teletubbies, shown locally on ATV, said it made a GBP23 million (HK$293 million) profit last year on worldwide sales of the show and authentic Teletubbies merchandise.

 Andrew Gee, director of Wave Licensing International which licenses Teletubbies products in Hong Kong, said the trade in fakes was costing the legitimate industry millions.

 'It's a very big problem. There's just so much illegitimate product out there,' he said.

 'You see them in markets, you see people with small trolleys on streets, you see vendors with boxes full of Teletubbies toys. They are reaching a high degree of sophistication in terms of the copies.'  Matthew Gee, who runs Wave Licensing International in Singapore, said pre-Christmas demand was providing fertile ground for pirates.

 'Times are hard this year. Shops are trying to do what they can to get by and families want to spend less,' he said.

 'Kids are screaming for these things. It's the biggest thing in the past 10 years in licensed properties.'  The counterfeit Teletubbies trade had cost the legitimate industry at least US$3 million (HK$23.2 million) in Singapore alone. He estimated losses in Hong Kong at US$2 million.



Undercover hunt for rogue Teletubbies