QUESTION: What puts hundreds of people out of work, is funded by dozens of international Crime gangs and is supported by thousands of unsuspecting Boltonians? ANSWER: Christmas counterfeiting.

Dean Kirby looks into the world of the festive fakers to find out how they steal billions of pounds from under our Christmas trees to allegedly fund drug-trafficking and terrorism.

THIS is a Christmas story that a growing number of Bolton Evening News readers will have heard before -- they may have even played the leading characters themselves.

A father goes for a drink at his local pub on Christmas Eve and is approached by a man with a plastic carrier bag.

The man opens the bag and it is full of toys, videos and computer games -- all costing just a few pounds.

The father buys a teddy, a movie and a game before walking home with them under his arm. Then he wraps them up for his son to open the next day.

On Christmas morning his son is in tears. The teddy's eyes have fallen out, the movie is unwatchable and the computer game does not work.

The boy's father has been duped by the festive fakers. The carrier bag man will use his money to buy a batch of drugs to sell to teenagers on New Year's Eve.

Counterfeiting and piracy are crimes that cost the UK economy £9 billion every year. They have put 4,100 people out of work in the past 12 months alone.

Nearly 50 percent of all fake toys, perfumes and movie merchandise products are sold in the run up to Christmas.

And shoppers who buy them could put their loved ones at risk because many of the goods have not been safety tested.

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) says it has found evidence of criminal activity such as drug trafficking and terrorism in 80 per cent of its raids against counterfeiters.

Crime gangs sometimes employ illegal immigrants to make the goods in factory sweatshops. The first Harry Potter film video and DVD are among the most popular fakes. The massive profits are often used to buy drugs and to fund international terrorist organisations.

John Hillier, manager of ELSPA's anti-piracy unit, said: "The run up to Christmas is the peak time of year for pirate computer games and other products.

"We are carrying out operations almost daily across the country to help us stem this counterfeiting tidal wave."

The Government has brought out new laws to make prison sentences tougher for people caught creating copyright goods.

The maximum penalty for copyright theft has risen from two years to 10 years under the Copyright and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002.

Culture minister Kim Howells said: "Piracy and counterfeiting is theft -- plain and simple.

"It doesn't just affect large corporations, but also the small companies that are integral to the future of this country's creative industries.

"If we are to truly tackle piracy, the Government and industry must work together to get this message across to consumers in the run up to Christmas."

Some sections of the publishing industry believe even more should be done to help hard-working trading standards officers catch the crooks.

Lavinia Carey, the director general of the British Video Association, said: "Trading standards officers are working incredibly hard to tackle the problem of counterfeiting and piracy.

"But in many areas of the country they are being swamped. We are urging the Government to provide better funding for the trading standards service to enable them to enforce the law effectively."

Trading standards officers recently seized imitation bottles of a well-known brand of whisky in a Bolton shop. They say counterfeiting will only stop if shoppers take care about what they buy.

Darrell Wilson, one of Bolton's principal trading standards officers, said: "People are less likely to come across counterfeits if they shop at established retail outlets.

"Prices are good indicators fakes. People who come across cheap films and other goods should take care -- they could well be counterfeit. Nobody wants to give people Christmas presents that turn out to be fake or faulty. Anyone who finds counterfeits should contact us on 336586 ."

Families in Bolton can also play their own part in the war against counterfeit goods by going straight to the police.

Last year the police's Crimestoppers hotline received half a million calls about fakers from members of the public. It resulted in 5,500 arrests, but police officers are urging families to do more to stop the crime gangs this year.

Roy Clark, director of the Crimestoppers Trust, said: "Many people can identify criminals in the counterfeit goods trade. They can phone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 and pass on what they know to the police.

"People need to stop shopping cheap and start shopping cheats."