Counterfeit golf equipment seized in O.C.

A Lake Forest man was arrested Tuesday after sheriff’s deputies raided his home and a San Clemente warehouse and seized more than $1 million worth of counterfeit golf equipment they say he was selling on EBay.

Jason Paul Hughes, 32, was being held at Orange County Jail on suspicion of possessing counterfeit products for sale, a felony; bail was set at $1 million, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

“I’ve heard of counterfeit handbags and purses,” Amormino said. “But high-end golf clubs -- I’ve never heard of that.”

Sheriff’s investigators became suspicious about two weeks ago, he said, when they were contacted by representatives of Callaway Golf Co. who said their products were being sold on the online-auction site below market price. Callaway, based in Carlsbad, is a manufacturer of expensive golf clubs and accessories.

A subsequent investigation, Amormino said, revealed that the material was being sold out of a warehouse operated by Hughes in the 900 block of Calle Negocio in San Clemente under the company name of Tech Point LLC.

Sheriff’s deputies confiscated about 1,500 golf clubs, as well as bags, covers, balls and gloves bearing the insignias of Callaway and two other high-end golf equipment manufacturers, Titleist and Cleveland.

Investigators believe the clubs were imported from China for about $100 per set. The actual sets retail in the U.S. for $2,500 to $3,000, and the counterfeits may have been sold for $800 to $1,000 apiece, Amormino said.

Individual clubs normally retailing for about $400, he said, were being sold on the Internet for between $200 and $300.

Though authorities don’t know how many of the fake golf clubs were sold, Amormino said, they think the number is in the thousands.

“It wasn’t a bad product,” he said, “but definitely not the real thing. They were very good counterfeits; we didn’t get one complaint from a customer.”

david.haldane@latimes.com