Matthew Hyett, 33, of Mill Street, sold the counterfeit football merchandise from his market stall in Morley and online. Hyett was caught after officers from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit at the City of London Police seized the 1,674 counterfeit shorts in a raid in October 2022.
"We urge football fans to think twice before buying fake merchandise. An individual may think that when buying counterfeit goods, they are only affecting a multi-million pound brand but in reality, they could be helping fund criminal activity. Marcus Evans, Deputy Director of Intelligence and Law Enforcement at the Intellectual Property Office , said: “Criminal networks continue to exploit the loyalty of sports fans for their own financial gain by targeting the market with illegal counterfeit products – with little or no regard for their quality or safety.
"This helps to sustain criminal lifestyles, as well as causing genuine harms to those workers often exploited during their production.