A MUM-of-four who played a crucial role in a multi-million pound international counterfeiting operation was jailed for 15 months.

Jocelyn Hunter took advantage of lax UK border controls to import bogus goods from China – namely top quality fake Gillette razor blades and Oral B electric toothbrush heads – to her Pinehurst home.

The 42-year-old then sent them on to customers inside the European Union including Poland, Lithuania, Germany and Italy, charging a fee for each box she sent.

The operation is thought to have cost trademark holders Proctor and Gamble many millions of pounds in lost revenue.

In the early stages they sent her letters warning she was dealing in fakes after a package was examined, but she ignored them.

As her business, JC Freight, grew she took on a unit at BSS House, on the Cheney Manor Industrial Estate to receive and send deliveries, while Proctor and Gamble hired a private investigator to look into her trade and when they called her she said she could supply the hooky goods.

She also used friends and relatives as postal addresses so as not to arouse suspicion amongst customs officers with parcels going to the same place.

But she was caught in late 2011 when packages continued to be sent to her from the Far East contained the fake products and she was arrested after a trawl through her email account revealed the extent of her dealing in the bogus goods.

Alan Fuller, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that from documentation they could prove she distributed goods with a retail value of £2.7 million.

However he said the true value would be way in excess of that figure as she ran the operation in the two-and-a-half years to December 2011.

Hunter, of Willows Avenue, Pinehurst, pleaded guilty to two counts of unauthorised use of a trade mark.

Jonathan Lewis, defending, said his client had made very little out of the operation and at first had not realised she was dealing in fake goods.

Since her arrest he said she started a legitimate business and handed in a number of references showing she was active in the community.

Jailing her Judge Tim Mousley QC said: “As a result of your actions there was an enormous loss financially to the trademark holders.

“The operation that you conducted was prolonged, it was organised, highly so, what you did was carefully thought out. It was a sophisticated and professional operation.

“ It was on a very large scale, it was international, I am satisfied that the profits must have been significant. Your role in it was crucial.”