A TRADER who sold thousands of pounds-worth of counterfeit goods on eBay is to be sentenced at Swindon Crown Court.

Anthony Grey, who ran TG Supplies from his home in Shapwick Close, carried on selling clothes with false trademarks even after listings on an auction site had been removed because they were fakes, the town’s magistrates were told.

Grey, 55, admitted 13 counts of offering goods for sale bearing a false trademark and three of selling goods with signs identical or likely to be mistaken for a trademark.

Phil Wirth, prosecuting for Swindon Borough Council, said Grey employed three people producing goods.

In interview under caution the defendant had admitted his workers took images and trademarks from the internet and put them on hoodies, teeshirts and caps using transfers.

Marvel characters Captain America and the Hulk, Jurassic Park, Thrasher and Marshall Amps were among the trademarks taken and used without permission.

He told council officers he had never heard of the Intellectual Property Office, the government organisation responsible for trademarks and copyright.

In March, when public protection trading standards and police officers executed a warrant at his home, where he also ran an office supplies firm, he was dealing with between 3,500 and 4,000 orders a month, about half of them for clothing.

Before Christmas last year he had a number of listings removed by eBay because of complaints about trademark infringement.

Mr Wirth said Grey took the view that because lots of other people were doing the same thing it was OK to continue.

“He did not know how the designs came about but almost certainly the images would have come from the internet.”

All the samples sent to the trademark owners for examination were confirmed to infringe copyright.

“It is clear he deliberately set out to sell products that he knew infringed trademarks,” said Mr Wirth. “And that he knew that what he was doing was wrong, but continued to do it because others were doing it.”

Mark Glendenning, defending, said: “He is before the court for naivete.”

Grey had a number of companies trading from his home and the bulk of the income came from the office supplies business.

His gross income for the 2014/15 year had been £35,000 and £40,000 the following year, with profit of £12,000. “He says 35 per cent of sales in those years are of these items.”

Grey had used images that were available on the internet.

“I have gone on the internet and I have managed to find products with every one of these trademarks,” said Mr Glendenning.

But since the intervention he had put in a system of checks to ensure he did not breach copyright rules.

“He accepts that he has committed the offence, he accepts that is comes under the definition of counterfeiting,” he added.