TRADING Standards Officers from St Helens have seized a huge haul of more than 12,000 fake designer T-shirts - with an approximate High Street value of £250,000 - at a warehouse in Haydock.

Officers confiscated the counterfeit T-shirts - the majority of which were bearing the Ralph Lauren Polo logo - after entering the warehouse with officers from Merseyside Police.

The warehouse contained more than 20 pallet loads of counterfeit clothing.

Councillor Richard Ward, Chairman of the council's Housing, Environmental & Contract Services Department, said: "It would appear this clothing was awaiting distribution to various parts of the country. A seizure of this size is a major success in the fight against counterfeiters, who harm legitimate business and jeopardise jobs. The quality of many of the garments is very poor and serves to illustrate how the public get a poor deal when buying such garments - they are not the bargains they would appear."

Detective Inspector Taffy Williams from St Helens Police Station, said: "We have always had a good working relationship with the officers from Trading Standards and this is an excellent result for them."

Trading Standards are still trying to locate the source of the counterfeit clothing and the investigation is ongoing.

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