Fake football shirts worth £500k seized

POLICE have seized £500,000 of fake football shirts ahead of the World Cup after raids across the country including in Bristol.

The City of London’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), along with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), coordinated the raids, arresting six people and seizing £12,000 in cash. Officers seized four tonnes of fake jerseys in raids in Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol and Northampton.

Four premises were raided in Leeds, with officers seizing a large quantity of fake England shirts, Fifa World Cup badges and £2,000 in cash.n In Sheffield, officers seized fakes from a storage facility and £10,000 in cash from a residential premises.

Together the Leeds and Sheffield merchandise was estimated by police to be valued at £250,000.

Similarly, raids were carried out in Bristol and Northampton, with a further £250,000 of counterfeit shirts seized.

Detective Sergeant Matthew Hussey, from PIPCU said police “regularly see” connections between the counterfeit goods trade and organised criminal groups. He urged football fans to “think twice” before buying fake merchandise.

Marcus Evans, deputy director of intelligence and law enforcement at IPO, said that criminal gangs are seeking to exploit football fans’ support for their favourite teams.