Fake goods went on display at a ‘street market’ in Glasgow’s George Square on Saturday.

The event was organised as part of an international conference at the City Chambers aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of counterfeit products.

READ MORE: £30M of fake goods recovered in three-year Barras crackdown

Dodgy electrical goods including a burned out smoothie maker and straighteners which are missing vital components were on show.

Fake branded clothes and vacuum-packed DVD box sets were also made available to the public as part of ‘The Real McCoy’ event hosted by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC).

Representatives from dozens of agencies including Europol, Interpol and US Homeland Security explained the dangers of fake goods.

READ MORE: £30M of fake goods recovered in three-year Barras crackdown

Among the hundreds of people who visited George Square was eight-year-old Dixie – a Springer Spaniel trading standards sniffer dog.

Linda Gray, assistant manager at Glasgow City Council’s trading standards department, said: “Dixie came out with us on one of our most successful operations recently where she found products we wouldn’t normally find when carrying out routine inspections.

“Counterfeit cigarettes were concealed in wall cavities and boxes labelled as other things. She’s primarily a tobacco detection dog but also finds DVDs.”

This week trading standards officers and Police Scotland seized more than £20,000 worth of fake goods from an address in Newmains, Wishaw.

The counterfeit goods, including branded footwear, clothing and tobacco were being advertised for sale online by a 43-year-old woman who is now facing charges.

A large sum of money, along with computer equipment, was also seized for further investigation, after the early morning operation on Wednesday May 25.

Ms Gray said similar raids are carried out in Glasgow and across Scotland regularly, but trading standards officer are facing an “uphill struggle”.

“It’s not always traditional markets, like the Barras, a lot of it is being sold online now which presents its own challenges in terms of dealing with investigations,” she said, “so, online is the thing that is definitely an uphill struggle because there’s a worldwide market at your fingertips.”

Figures released to the Evening Times last year show that fake goods valued at more than half a million pounds were seized by Trading Standards officers in Glasgow in 2014.

The counterfeit products included perfumes, clothing, bags, mobile phones, sunglasses, watches, hair straighteners and jewellery.

In 2014, 6,195 items were seized with a value of £575,000, up from 6,110 items taken off the streets in 2013.

Chief Inspector Ronald Megaughin, Deputy Director of SBRC, said the event in George Square had been a “fantastic” opportunity to raise awareness.

He said: “It certainly met expectation in terms of turnout and the level of interest – it’s into the hundreds, in terms of the number of people who have come along.”

Chief Inspector Megaughin was keen to drive home the message that dealing in fake goods is often a front for international criminals.

READ MORE: £30M of fake goods recovered in three-year Barras crackdown

“It’s a global issue and the money can go to criminality and undoubtedly to terrorism in different factions in different parts of the world,” he added.

“So people in Glasgow who buy these goods could be funding organised criminality or even terrorism.”

For more information on the conference, visit: www.sbrcentre.co.uk.