7,000 knock-off Super Mario toys and 2,000 fake Disney Frozen Loom Band sets were intercepted.
A haul of fake and dangerous toys worth £500,000 has been stopped from entering the Christmas market, thanks to trading Standards officers in Salford.
Peppa Pig, Disney’s Frozen, Angry Birds and Super Mario toys were among the counterfeit good seized.
While some of the toys discovered appear difficult to distinguish from their official counterparts, they were found to feature no warnings of safety advice on the packaging and the materials had not been tested for use in the toys.
Manchester Evening News reports that 7,000 knock-off Super Mario toys and 2,000 fake Disney Frozen Loom Band sets were intercepted by council trading standards officers and police in one business unit alone.
In another unit, 3,700 counterfeit toys including 21 boxes of Frozen items, 20 boxes of Disney toys, 12 boxes of Spider-Man toys and 10 boxes of Toy Story goods were recovered.
The haul took eight transit van journeys, two combi van journeys and two trips in a people carrier to remove, according to Salford’s deputy mayor, Councillor David Lancaster.
The products will now be crushed and recycled.
The haul was recovered days after Salford and Manchester councils and other partner agencies launched a campaign for ‘better business.’
With Christmas shopping in the UK expected to reach £22 billion this year, and the scale of the UK’s intellectual property crime and counterfeiting estimated to be at least £90million, Trading Standards has warned consumers of the danger of dodgy goods.
“While a cheap deal on the must have gift may seem appealing at the moment, these fake good present a false economy, and that can have a frightening consequence,” read a statement from the body.
“Trading Standards officers are on the frontline of consumer protection, working hard to remove from the market place the poorly made concoctions of criminals out to make a quick buck at the expense of honest traders and the safety of shoppers.”
