A Birmingham couple turned their home right into a fake clothing manufacturing facility churning out branded t-shirts, promoting them on-line and posting them to unsuspecting clients
Shelves stacked with fake branded t-shirts able to be posted out to on-line clients
This is contained in the operation the place a Birmingham couple used a printer and stacks of plain t-shirts to dupe brands out of millions, main to at least one of them ending up behind bars.
Shahzad Ahmed and his spouse Afshan carried out an enormous counterfeit clothing operation from behind the doorways of their Acocks Green home.
Located in a small cul-de-sac – Bricksmith Close, the duo remodeled their home into a giant fake good printing manufacturing facility.
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They ran it by an organization, Smass Ltd, of Bizspace Business Park, Unit 23, Sigma Way, Kings Rd, Tyseley, with Shahzad Ahmed listed because the director.
Birmingham Trading Standards officers raided the home and seized items.
They interviewed them beneath warning and had initially issued a warning to the couple to cease – however they carried on – working the scam ‘business’ for greater than 5 years..
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Piles of completely different colored t-shirts have been stacked on cabinets, able to printed with an unlimited choice of logos, emblems and designs, which have been then posted out to their clients.
They can be offered through on-line marketplaces and despatched to clients.
Birmingham City Council despatched BirminghamStay the pictures, which revealed the extent of the fake items ‘cottage industry’, which is believed to have value brands a cool £2 million in ‘estimated financial harm to legitimate brands’.
Images present black and blue steel shelving items stacked with plain t-shirts and sweaters, in a variety of colors and huge stack of white ones, able to be imprinted with an unlimited array of well-known photos.
The metropolis council listed Gucci, Marvel, Warner Brothers and Paw Patrol among the many brands affected.
But the photographs they despatched, the reveals for the Birmingham Trading Standards case, revealed many, many extra.
Tool model, DeWalt, the Football Association’s England emblem, a Bob Marley picture. Honda, the Olympics and Adidas’s oldskool emblem.
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NASA, Warner Bros’ Batman and Game of Thrones, MGM’s Vikings’ TV present emblem, comedian ebook creator, Stan Lee Man of Many Faces picture and BMW.
Marvel’s The Punisher, Universal’s Jurassic Park, Team GB, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and extra.
A number of copyrighted photos and logos, copied, printed and offered – over 5 years.
Images revealed a t-shirt printer, a gray Royal Mail bag to get orders out in bulk, and cabinets stacked excessive with each plain and printed t-shirts.
According to Companies House, Smass Ltd’s busines sis listed as ‘retail sale via mail order houses or via internet’, plus ‘Other information technology service activities and ‘management consultancy activities other than financial management’.
Smass Ltd’s micro accounts for the yr ending 31 May 2024 confirmed present property of £17,257 and liabilities of £20,344, indicating the corporate was in a deficit of £4,024.
The micro accounts for the yr ending 31 May 2025 confirmed internet present property of £11,660 and present liabilities of £21,514, indicating the enterprise was in deficit to the tune of £7,384.
The agency was stated to have three workers. But nothing of the dimensions of the fake clothing scam was revealed.
Shahzad Ahmed, aged 41 and Afshan Shahzad admitted providing to promote items bearing ‘a sign identical to a trademark and possession of goods bearing a sign identical to a trademark, offences under the Trade Mark Act.
Ahmed also admitted money laundering – ‘transferring and/or converting criminal property, namely the proceeds of the sale of counterfeit goods’ – an offence beneath the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Ahmed was jailed for six-and-a-half years at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday (April 7), whereas his spouse, Shahzad, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and ordered to finish 200 hours of unpaid work and 10 days of rehabilitation.
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Sajeela Naseer, director of Regulation and Enforcement at Birmingham City Council, stated: “This case represented a serious and deliberate attempt to profit from criminal activity at the expense of consumers, legitimate businesses, and well‑known brands.
“Despite repeated warnings and clear opportunities to cease their activities, Mr Ahmed and Ms Shahzad continued to operate illegally for personal gain.
“The sentencing reflects the gravity of their actions, and we hope it sends a strong message that counterfeiting will not be tolerated in Birmingham.”
Birmingham Trading Standards added it ‘remains committed to working with brand owners, enforcement partners, and online platforms to identify and disrupt similar illegal trading operations’.
