A STALLHOLDER who sold counterfeit handbags, purses and belts bearing luxury brand names, including Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, D&G and Louis Vuitton, was given a 12-months suspended prison sentence.

Harinder Singh was also ordered to pay £700 towards Ealing Council's legal costs at Harrow Crown.

Singh, from Hounslow, had already pleaded guilty to nine counts of owning fake ‘designer’ goods at his plea hearing, following a prosecution brought by Ealing Council.

Ealing trading standards team had seized the illegal horde in a joint raid with police on Singh’s storage unit at Shurgard in Greenford Road, Greenford.

Experts representing some of the trademark and copyright holders were present at the raid, too, and were able to identify the infringing goods.

A large number of fake items were also discovered in Singh’s van during the operation, along with spare ‘designer’ labels, logos and badges.

It was estimated the goods would be worth approx £7m had they been genuine, though the genuine value was closer to £285,000. As the fake bags were available for around £5 mark, the judge accepted they were not being sold as genuine and customers did not believe they were actually the real thing.

The judge issued a suspended prison term and ordered that Singh be electronically tagged for four months as well as undertaking 80 hours of unpaid community work.