Countefeit clampdown at Manchester Airport
Customs officers seize tens of thousands of pounds with of goods.
More than £270,000 worth of counterfeit goods have been seized at Manchester airport in the run up to Christmas.
In the last few weeks alone, Border Force officers have confiscated over 32,000 bogus items including 168 Manchester City football shirts,300 pairs of Mulberry gloves, 92 Mac make-up brushes and 145 Beats Pill portable speakers and cases.
Emma Porter is the deputy director of border force at Manchester Airport. She tells us the illegal items they see coming through customs can vary: "It's a range of goods, from counterfit make up to electrical items which won't be up to the standards that consumers are used to. People will manufacture and sell anything that has a decent value and a name that people know.
"There's lots of dangers to these products; electrical goods could cause fires in your house if they're not connected up properly, makeup can cause rashes on your face, and clothes might fall apart."
Emma says organised crime gangs are often behind the importation of goods: "The people who are doing this are out to make a profit from the consumer and the individuals that are making them. There's sweatshops, a lack of pay and health and safety concerns.
"We need to sieze these goods to protect the person buying the them and to disrupt the organised crime gangs. Every item we take one of these items out that's profit that they can't make."
Manchester Airport say the number of fake goods coming in to the country goes up in the lead up to Christmas: "There's massive consumer demand at this time of year when people spend a lot of money so organised gangs capitalise on that. Organised crime gangs bring the items in, sell them on the streets and they won't pay tax either so it goes all the way through."