A rogue businessman ‘put profits before children’s lives’ by importing counterfeit and dangerous toys worth thousands of pounds.
Abdul Rasheed Khan’s warehouse in Broughton, Salford, was raided three times by Salford council trading standards officers over a nine-month period from 2014.
Potentially lethal counterfeit toys - including unsafe bow and arrow sets and a stretchy toy which officials say could have ‘strangled a child’ - were seized. Now council bosses have issued a pre-Christmas warning over counterfeit goods, saying anyone buying fakes on the cheap is putting their own lives and the lives of others at risk.
Khan’s company, Glorious Imports and Wholesale Ltd, based on Overbridge Road, is no longer trading, Salford council said. Thousands of pounds worth of fake goods and toys - ranging from Disney and Super Mario figurines to Lego, Gucci belts and smartphones - were seized in the raids.
Khan, 44, who the council said was ‘only concerned about profit’, was prosecuted under the Trade Marks Act and pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to 24 charges of selling fake goods.
The council said that he ignored safety legislation and warnings from trading standards officers.
Khan was said to have imported seven shipping containers full of goods and thousands of toy lines into the country every year, but blamed the Chinese manufacturers he bought from.
