UK Border Force swoops on fake Olympics merchandise

The UK Border Force has seized thousands of items of counterfeit Olympics merchandise at ports, airports and postal sorting centres with the haul including fake sports bags, football shirts, vests and cigarette lighters.

More than 7,000 fake Olympic bags, 500 cigarette lighters and 400 sports vests were among the haul, with the largest cache discovered in a shipping container from China that entered the country at Felixstowe port in Suffolk.

The seizures are part of a nationwide clampdown on counterfeit Olympics merchandise, which last month netted thousands of fake ticket holders at Heathrow airport.

Home Office Minister Damian Green said: "Counterfeiting is not a harmless crime but a criminal enterprise posing a serious economic threat estimated to be worth around £1.3bn in the UK each year."

"In this Olympic summer our officers have utilised intelligence sources, scanner technology and search techniques to successfully thwart those seeking to illegally profit from the Games," he added.

Chris Townsend , commercial director of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), said: "Fake products not only undermine our ability to raise the revenues needed to stage and host the London 2012 Games, but the fake goods themselves are likely to be of inferior quality and not meet the stringent safety and sustainability standards that all official products must meet."

"All official London 2012 merchandise bears the London 2012 hologram.  When tilting the hologram from left to right and up and down, you should be able to see the London 2012 logos rotating with a 3D effect - if you are unable to see this then the product is likely to be fake."