Dodgy ‘designer’ goods, worth more than £170,000 if they were genuine products, have been seized at Manchester Airport over the last month.
Among them are knock-off Gucci handbags emblazoned with the symbolic bee, £120 Nike trainers, £350 Jimmy Choos, North Face jackets, Pandora charms and Beats speakers.
They were likely on their way to Christmas stockings across the country, via car boot and community sales or potentially Strangeways - counterfeit capital of Europe.
When the M.E.N visited Manchester’s freight terminal, the true scale of the problem became clear as officers opened box after box of fakes.
Counterfeiters have become expert at copying the genuine article, from the packaging, to colours and logos.
But there are often tiny telltale signs - and Border Force are adept at spotting them.
One officer complains of nausea from the glue used to construct a dodgy pair of Nike trainers.
An Apple iPhone charger looks immaculate from the outside - but the product is noticeably flimsy and, it transpires, a fire hazard.
Inside hundreds of boxes of ‘hair straighteners’ are concealed professionally-packaged fake Beats speakers, but the colour’s slightly off. A ‘Gucci’ jumper feels cheap and heavy on closer inspection - and the logo on a Super Mario game is not quite right. In all likelihood, it won’t work when played, officers say.
Border Force staff are warning shoppers to steer clear of these cheap imitations, as the profits are likely to fund organised crime.
As well as being illegal, some goods could be lethal due to the chemicals they’re made with.
Items seized in recent weeks include:
228 Gucci items worth £98,600
1,530 Pandora charms worth £45,900
32 pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes worth £11,200
100 Nintendo DS games worth £4,000
48 pairs of Nike Vapormax trainers worth £5,760
48 bottles of Hugo Boss perfume worth £2,976
Over 35,000 Pokemon cards worth £1,830
Once items are seized, officers work with the owners of big brands to establish whether or not goods are genuine.
If fake, they are destroyed and the rights holders can decide whether to privately prosecute the importers.
Paul Airlie, deputy director of Border Force North, said: “With some it’s clear they are counterfeit, with others it’s not. Think about safety, a guarantee and ask for a receipt. The people who produce these goods and sell them on are usually organised crime groups. If a deal seems too good to be true then it probably is.”
In recent weeks, Border Force staff across the country at airports, sea ports and postal hubs have seized good worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said: “The international trade in counterfeits is linked to serious and organised crime and undercuts honest traders, damaging our economy. Customers are also left out of pocket with inferior and potentially dangerous goods.
“We are determined to crack down on this criminality and have Border Force officers working 24 hours a day at ports, airports and mail sorting centres to identify and seize counterfeits.”
Anyone who has been sold counterfeit goods or knows someone who is selling them should contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.
