LANCASHIRE County Trading Standards Service has vowed to crack down on counterfeit goods following one of the biggest seizures ever made in the county.

Clothing worth more than £3million was seized by Trading Standards officers from a warehouse in Lench Road, Rawtenstall, last week after they received information that the building was being used to store illegal goods, including T shirts, jeans and sunglasses.

Thousands of items of fake brand-name clothing including Umbro, Reebok, Burberry, Armani, Ted Baker and Miss Sixty were found. Investigations into the matter are continuing.

But Lancashire County Council's deputy leader, County Councillor Doreen Pollitt, warned that people selling counterfeit goods were misleading consumers and damaging legitimate traders.

The Anti Counterfeiting Group reported that last year alone counterfeiting was estimated to cost the UK more than 4,000 jobs and nearly £10billion. Coun Pollitt said: "Traders selling counterfeit goods mislead consumers into paying out money for products that are of poor quality.

"The sale of fake goods adversely affects local, legitimate businesses who lose sales resulting in the cutting of existing jobs and putting future jobs at risk.

"We are determined to clamp down on these illegal activities."