The operator of a store in a Jing’an wholesale glasses market that allegedly sold fake Essilor lenses has been arrested, prosecutors in Hongkou District said yesterday.

According to Hongkou District People’s Procuratorate, the store became an authorized distributor of Essilor five years ago. Essilor, a French optics company, is one of the world’s premier designers, manufacturers and sellers of lenses.

Hu, the store’s owner, was approached by salesmen of fake Essilor lenses in January last year and, since the packaging and actual lenses looked similar to real ones, Hu bought the fakes at low prices and mixed them with genuine ones before selling them at prices ranging from 680 to 5,000 yuan (US$739).

Police seized more than 8,000 counterfeit lenses. The market value of the genuine articles is thought to be nearly 5.7 million yuan.

Hu told prosecutors that the salesmen also gave him some anti-counterfeiting marks that appeared to be real.