Lawrence Chard has been officially rebuked and branded as a serial “abusive registrar” of domains which are designed to impersonate other companies, including the Royal Mint.
This shocking state of affairs reveals precisely the extremely low level of business “ethics” which Chard and his “companies” employ.
In a ruling made in March 2006 by Nominet UK, the official statutory body which regulates Internet domain registrations in Britain, that organisation declared Chard to be guilty of “abusive registration” when he attempted to impersonate the Royal Mint by registering the domain royalmint.co.uk .
According to the Nominet UK ruling, the original of which can be found here, the facts of the case were as follows:
“The (Royal) Mint owns two domain names: <royalmint.gov.uk> and <royalmint.com>. It has owned these domain names since 1997 and 1996 respectively, and has operated websites at internet addresses which incorporate these domain names since 2005 and 1996 respectively.
“As a result of the above, the Mint owns the substantial and valuable goodwill and reputation in the ROYAL MINT name, amounting to rights enforceable under English law via the tort of passing-off.
“The Respondent (and registrant of the Domain Name) is an individual, Lawrence Chard. Lawrence Chard is, and has at all relevant times been, a director and shareholder of a company incorporated in England and Wales as company number 01378220: Chard (1964) Limited.
“Chard (1964) Limited appear to do business via a website at <www.chards.co.uk>. Lawrence Chard is the registrant of the <chards.co.uk> domain name. There are numerous links from the website at <www.chards.co.uk> to a website (described as one of “Chard’s websites”) at <www.24carat.co.uk>.
““Chard Limited” is the registrant of the <24carat.co.uk> domain name. It should be noted that no such company exists (at least not one registered in England and Wales) and it is presumed that Chard Limited is an erroneous reference to Chard (1964) Limited.
“The Complainant submits that the Domain Name is an Abusive Registration as the Respondent acquired and is using the Domain Name in a way which takes unfair advantage of and is unfairly detrimental to the Complainant’s Rights.”
Nominet UK ruled that the domain be seized from Lawrence Chard and retuned to the Royal Mint.
The question any potential customer must ask is this: why would Lawrence Chard attempt to impersonate the Royal Mint?
The only answer can be that he was attempting to deceive Internet users by yet another fake internet front company.
That time, however, the Chard charade was caught out.
* Of significance in the Nominet ruling, was the following paragraphs:
“The expert notes the submission by the Complainant that the Respondent (either directly or through businesses with which he has some connection appear to have been engaged in a pattern of abusive registrations.
"It appears that in this regard, there are associated registrants / websites: -
Lawrence Chard
www.chards.co.uk
"These associated parties have now been the subject of a number of previous Decisions which have found against them: -
DRS -570 Blackpooltower.co.uk
DRS – 2921 Alternate.co.uk
WIPO Case No. D2001-1501 - garrards.com
"Additionally, the Complainant has provided a list of .co.uk domains which appear to satisfy the test of paragraph 3.a.iii, namely: -
“The Complainant can demonstrate that the Respondent is engaged in a pattern of registrations where the Respondent is the registrant of domain names (under .uk or otherwise) which correspond to well known names or trade marks in which the Respondent has no apparent rights, and the Domain Name is part of that pattern;”
"The Expert finds that the Complainant has so demonstrated and that the provisions of paragraph 3c are satisfied.”
In other words, Lawrence Chard has a confirmed track record of internet impersonation and misrepresentation and has done this to more than one company.
Is he a crook? Well. Some of his unhappy eBay customers called him that, but we will let the readers make up their own minds….
Caveat Emptor! Let the Buyer Beware!
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