A MAN stopped on the motorway with fake Ralph Lauren tracksuits and the badges from fake UGG boots has been told to pay back £76,000.

Bernard O’Toole, from Liverpool, was stopped on the M62 at Birchwood with two large bags of counterfeit Ralph Lauren tracksuits, the fake UGG materials and £4,745 in cash in his van.

The 72-year-old was told to pay the money back following a hearing at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday.

If he fails to pay within six months, he would be jailed for 12 months.

The court heard when they went to O’Toole’s home, in November 2012, they found 38,000 counterfeit items as well as a significant manufacturing operation involving sewing machines, logo heat presses, packaging materials and all the materials necessary to produce more counterfeit clothing and footwear.

O’Toole was also ordered to pay £9000 towards Warrington Borough Council’s legal costs. He had already been sentenced to a six month suspended sentence for the 13 offences.

Clr David Keane, the council’s executive board member for public protection, said: “Warrington Public Protection Service continues to lead the way in local government circles in ensuring that those who break the law do not retain their ill-gotten gains.

“The council’s financial investigators have demonstrated with this case that through close working with the officers of the Public Protection Team both the cash seizure and confiscation regimes under the Proceeds of Crime Act can be used effectively by local authorities.”

Clr Keane concluded: “This result sends out a clear warning to anyone considering entering into this style of criminality: do not become involved in the supply of counterfeit goods, because if you do, when you get caught, trading standards will ensure that all the profits you have made are seized.”