[CPProt.net] U.K. Court Upholds Damages Award to Borders in Book-Theft Ring

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

U.K. Court Upholds Damages Award to Borders in Book-Theft Ring 

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- A British appeals court upheld a 380,000-pound
($726,000) damages award to Borders Group Inc.'s U.K. unit and seven other
retailers in their civil lawsuit against a London book shoplifting ring. 

The retailers last year sued ``street trader'' Ronald Jordan for selling at
his market stalls in the city ``possibly hundreds of thousands of new
books'' stolen by shoplifters, according to court documents. Jordan, who
made more than 600,000 pounds from the stalls between November 2001 and July
2003, was in January 2004 sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to
steal books and handling stolen goods. 

The U.K. Court of Appeal today dismissed Jordan's challenge to the size of
the damages award, ruling that it was defensible given his own
``outrageous'' conduct. 

The retailers estimated at Jordan's criminal trial last year that sales at
his stalls had cost them around 2.4 million pounds. 

The case is A2/2004/1550 Borders (UK) Ltd. & ors v. Commissioner of Police
of the Metropolis & anr. 



To contact the reporter on this story:
Megan Murphy in London at  mmurphy41 at bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Eamonn Sullivan at  esullivan at bloomberg.net