A HAUL of counterfeit clothes and jewellery was seized in Liverpool in the run-up to Christmas.

Trading standards officers executed a series of raids in December targeting salesmen flogging bogus goods.

The city’s markets - Great Homer Street, Tuebrook, Speke, St John’s and Stanley Dock - were all visited by enforcement teams.

Thousands of pounds worth of fake items were nabbed during the blitz which has run for over three weeks.

Clothing, particularly Henley, Juicy Couture, Hugo Boss and Ugg, were among the booty discovered by trading standards.

Also popular in the city is jewellery - Tiffany and Pandora are always in demand - while boxes of GHD hair straighteners have also been regularly uncovered by investigators.

Enforcement officers, employed by Liverpool council, are now targeting counterfeiters operating solely online.

Much of the fake goods arrive from Manchester and Birmingham but the source for fakes is ever increasingly the Far East.

Trading standards boss John McHale told the ECHO criminal sellers were now ordering their stock direct from China.

He said: "With a decent computer people buy a lot of counterfeit goods now on the internet.

"They don’t have an established stall in a market anymore. If they’ve got a few friends and rent some cheap units, that’s how they operate."