No rental of fake bags: Ciccioli acquitted

She had been accused of renting fake bags, passing them off as designer items, and even the program "Striscia la notizia" had covered her case. But in court, the woman, from San Giusto, proved that she had never committed any crime and was acquitted with the broadest formula.

The events and the original accusations

This concerns an incident that allegedly occurred at the beginning of 2016, when Laura Ciccioli, manager of the website "rentfashionbag.com", had been accused of receiving stolen goods and trading in counterfeit products.

1. A Swiss citizen had reported having repeatedly bought bags and other designer items from the website, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tod’s, and others.
2. A Chanel bag, paid 2,600 euros, had broken: taken to the Milan store for repair, it had been declared fake.
3. The complaint had been filed with the police and subsequently reported to "Striscia la notizia", leading to the intervention of the correspondent Moreno Morello.

The intervention of the Guardia di Finanza

The correspondent Moreno Morello had contacted the Guardia di Finanza, which, following a search, had seized:

• Two Celine bags;
• Three Longchamp bags;
• Five Chanel bags;
• Some original Chanel authenticity certificates (found to have been stolen in 2012 from a company in Milan).

The trial at the Court of Macerata

The trial began in the Macerata court, in which the French high fashion house had become a civil party. In court, defended by lawyer Roberto Catanzaritti, the woman demonstrated her total innocence based on various points:

• It had not been ascertained whether the bags found in the house were actually intended for rental.
• The technical consultancy on the falsity of some items had been carried out exclusively through photographs.
• For all items, there were purchase receipts attesting to transactions in boutiques at prices appropriate for the luxury market.

The acquittal sentence

The defense argued that, even if some bags had turned out to be inauthentic, the defendant was completely unaware of it, having purchased them convinced of their originality (some had also been family gifts).

Despite the prosecution having requested a two-year prison sentence, Judge Domenico Potetti accepted the defense's argument:

The defendant was fully acquitted, "because the act does not constitute a crime".