Police seize £30m worth of fakes in Scotland

Police and Trading Standards officers have seized £30 million ($43 million) worth of fake goods from a market in Glasgow.

According to a report by  Herald Scotland published on Monday, May 23, 100 arrests were made by Trading Standards and police officers at Glasgow’s Barras market.

They seized counterfeit shoes, tobacco, clothes, electronics and bags which were falsely labelled as designer and were a result of intelligence compiled by officials from brands, the police and Trading Standards.

The findings were circulated by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

During an operation called Operation Salang between Trading Standards officers and police, the items were found.

It was set up to try and protect the intellectual property of brands and reduce illegal counterfeiting.

Huw Watkins, head of intelligence at the IPO, said: “It started just over two years ago in response to the sort of criminality we were seeing in the area around the Barras.”

The Scottish government and Glasgow City Council have a £5 million budget to regenerate the Barras area.

Earlier this year,  WIPR reported that Manchester’s ‘counterfeit street’ was reported by the IPO to have had more than £1 million fakes seized from the area in 2013.