Elies Dehimi, of South Harrow, faces jail for smuggling fake goods

Elies Dehimi, 47, of Shaftesbury Avenue, South Harrow, was charged under the Trade Marks Act 1994 and found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of his role in a global counterfeiting ring.

His brother Sid Dehimi, 34, of Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park, and Mourad Abad, 39, from west London, and Zoheir Habet, 41, from Brentford, were also convicted.

The gang imported around 50,000 items including clothing, footwear, handbags and hair-straighteners from the Far East, between March 2007 and August 2010. The fake goods purported to be manufactured by Gucci, Versace, Ralph Lauren, Ugg and Nike.

The men also illegally smuggled counterfeit goods, which included 120,000 pairs of trainers, 500,000 handbags, 10,000 pairs of luxury shoes and 500 counterfeit wrist watches, into the US.

The gang was caught last March, after two shipping containers full of fake designer gear worth an estimated £5 million, were discovered.

The arrests followed a joint operation involving undercover officers in the US and UK.

Further raids on a series of safety deposit boxes linked to the men, uncovered more than £300,000 in cash and officers found a further £35,000 in cash at Sid Dehimi’s home.

Storage units in Edgware, Borehamwood and Enfield were used to stash the fake gear.

When officers raided the Edgware unit they discovered 24,000 counterfeit items, while outside they found two Ford Transit vans stacked 'from floor to ceiling' with fake shoes. At the Enfield unit, they found a further 23,000 pairs of trainers.

The court heard trainers bearing the same markings as those seized, were also found on sale at Wembley market, in north London.

Elies Dehimi was also convicted alongside Sid Dehimi of two counts of possession of criminal property, and with Abad of two further counts of possession of criminal property.

The jury acquitted Sid Dehimi in relation to a fifth charge of possession of criminal property.

All four men will be sentenced on February 6.