A HUDDERSFIELD man has appeared in court accused of selling hundreds of fake designer goods in his Dewsbury clothes shop.

Tariq Hanif, of Hill Top, Slaithwaite, allegedly sold hundreds of knock-offs of well-known brands, including Armani, Timberland, Henri Lloyd and Fred Perry at his Corporation Street shop called Earth Menswear.

Yesterday, a hearing at Leeds Crown court heard that much of the stock at the 31-year-old’s shop was not genuine and trading standards experts estimated that up to £31,000 in profit could have been made had the fake items been sold.

Hanif had pleaded guilty to the 32 counts of unauthorised use of trademarks at an earlier hearing on February 8.

At yesterday’s hearing judge Alistair McCallum heard that Hanif’s three-floor shop, located in popular shopping area of the town, had “appeared to be a reputable clothes shop and was professionally fitted out”.

The second floor served as a stock room and the rest of the shop was filled with designer outfits and accessories sold at full retail price.

Judge McCallum heard that there were no indications that the goods were anything other than genuine items.

Police and West Yorkshire Trading Standards officials raided the premises on December 12 last year.

They seized 803 items which they suspected were counterfeit and sent them off for analysis to the trade mark holders.

A total of 520 pieces of clothing were confirmed as being fake.

In interviews with the police and Trading Standards Hanif admitted being the owner of the shop and said that he had purchased the clothes from two warehouses in Manchester in good faith.

But he was unable to produce receipts for his purchases and agreed that he had been cautioned for a similar offence a year before when he had purchased items from the same suppliers.

Jude McCallum heard that Hanif was selling his merchandise at a 50 percent markup on the original prices he bought them at.

It was estimated that the profit he would have made had he sold all the counterfeit goods was as high as £31,000.

Hanif was due to be sentenced but judge McCallum adjourned the case because the lawyers need to establish whether Hanif knew that the most of the goods were counterfeit when he purchased them or if he was in fact ‘duped’ by the suppliers and unknowingly came into possession of the.

Judge McCallum said that further investigations were needed as the outcome would determine the length of Hanif’s sentence.

The case was adjourned until April 14.