Last June I received an email from one of my customers - she was concerned about the designs offered by a new unknown digitiser operating from an embroidery mall and suggested I take a look. When I visited the link she provided I was horrified. My Scraptacular Sewing Bag was up for sale. It had a new name, one or two minor tweaks to the original design and was being sold by someone I'd never heard of and most certainly, had never authorised to sell my designs.

Upon further investigation I discovered this crook had purchased a whole lot of stuff from me under three different names (there may be more, who knows!). Her intention was quite clear - she would buy my in-the-hoop projects and use them as the basis for setting up her business.

Credit card cases, coin purses, towel toppers, cell phone holders, bag projects - these were just some of my items on her shopping list (and I have the sales records to prove it). Furthermore, she copied web content and instruction files virtually word for word. I asked her to remove the designs and come clean but she refused. This left me with no option but to seek legal advice.

During the course of the legal battle (which took six months) this woman really showed her true colors. She would email my business associates using a fake yahoo id, making false allegations in an attempt to discredit me and my business. She continued adding my designs to her website. She also bought designs from another digitiser and offered them for sale. She would pretend she was ill so that she could delay the legal process. She acquired another bag design of mine just after I made it available for sale on my website and gave it away as a free download to her newsletter subscribers.

And so it went ... until one day I thought she'd given up and gone away. How wrong was I!

She went and set up a new website and gave herself a new identity. She still has some of my designs on her site and continues to profit from my hard work. She has blogged about her innocence and asked people to pray for the troubled soul that has accused her of stealing. She has started her email campaign to my business partners again. She's even tried to block me from viewing her website so that I can't see what mischief she's getting up to. Too bad I know how to get around that.

And all of this is from a woman who claims to be a devout Christian.

The Bible has a lot to say about stealing and there are many passages one can quote, the most succinct being Exodus 20:15 "Thou shall not steal" . Never, in any way from anyone. God's intention is pretty clear. We are to gain property and possessions by honest work, not stealing.

Don't be fooled by this hyprocrite, who pretends to appear righteous only as a cloak to conceal her wicked ways. "He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4

What's more, this woman claims in two recent emails to me and on her blog that she doesn't know who I am and has no connection to the previous website. I have written proof of her identity and the links between the original site and the new one.

I just want you to know, "Mrs As yet Unnamed", that I am fed up with your lies and I will not stop until you take all my designs off your website. I have no qualms about revealing who you are and details of what you've done (and continue to do). The truth is on my side.

Now where did I leave my Stitches 'n Bears magazine?

Until later ..