POLICE have seized goods and equip-ment worth more than £13million in a crackdown on fakes sold at the Barras Market.

Dozens of people have also been arrested and more than 100 charges brought in relation to producing and selling counterfeit goods.

The year-long campaign was centred on forcing the illegal traders out of the famous market during the Commonwealth Games when tens of thousands of visitors were in the city.

Police said they are working with the market to protect the legitimate traders and have been co-ordinating with trading standards and Revenue and Customs to smash the counterfeiters' networks.

The Scottish Anti Illicit Trade Group told MSPs on the Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee of the damage done to traders and society by the amount of fake goods sold across Scotland.

Inspector Alan Dron, of Police Scotland Specialist Crime Division, said the Barras Market was the number one physical location for fake goods.

He said the raids included seizing goods at the Barras and in locations where they were produced or stored in the knowledge they were going to be sold at the market, and also equipment such as CD burners used to produce fake goods.

He said: "A co-ordinated and sustained approach was devised in advance of the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup events to minimise reputational risk plus allow local commun-ities and legitimate traders to flourish while reducing crime.

"One year on from commencing enforcement activity in and around the Barras Market area in the East End of Glasgow has resulted in over 50 arrests, over 100 charges and the seizure of over £13.5m illicit counterfeited and pirated goods."

The goods are understood to cover a wide range of products on sale at the market including fake designer clothes, hand rolling tobacco and cigarettes, CDs, DVDs and perfume and cosmetics.

Equipment included machines worth £3.5m used to create fake CDs and DVDs seized from a house.

The raids covered the Barras, the wider city area and the north of England. New products increasingly being counterfeited are smartphone chargers and e-cigarette chargers which, Inspector Dron said, posed a serious fire risk.

HE said fires have started in homes and in cars as a result of overheating or contact with exposure to bright sunlight.

He added said the fake goods trade was lucrative and more attractive to some organised criminals than the drugs trade due to lower risk of long prison terms.

He added: "If you bring in £1m of DVDs or £1m of class A drugs it is still worth £1m. But the penalties for class A drugs or DVDs is very different."

Inspector Dron said the operation with trading standards, HMRC and the Intellectual Property Service (IPO) was a success.

He said: "There was no great quantity of fake goods being sold during the Commonwealth Games."

He added that the effect was that many of those selling illicit goods at the market had given up.

The Scottish Anti Illicit Trade Group said the cost to the UK economy of counterfeit goods in lost taxes and profits was £1.3billion.

stewart.paterson@ eveningtimes.co.uk