A NATIONWIDE crackdown on counterfeiting was launched in the North-West today with a warning that cheap, fake goods can be dangerous and finance drug dealing.

Consumer Minister Kim Howells said in Manchester the "pirate economy" includes everything from washing powders to "exclusive" scents, music and computer CDs, designer labels and replica team strips.

A new law will allow trading standards officers for the first time to take out injunctions to stop counterfeit trading before the full court hearing.

The Consumer Bill, expected in the next Queen's Speech, will also bring in extensive new powers under the Fair Trading Acts to give Trading Standards officers new powers to close down any organisations guilty of illegal trading.

There will better funding for Trading Standards officers and the Government will seek to bring into line the unlimited and 10-year jail sentences for counterfeiting and piracy with breaches of copyright laws which at the moment have much lower penalties.

Mr Howells will highlight the issue in the first ever counterfeiting roadshow which was in Manchester today and will then move on to Leeds, London, Leicester and Chelmsford in the following 48 hours.

He will warn about rogue traders and alert consumers who knowingly buy such products that they are supporting serious criminal activity and put their families at risk because such goods are often dangerous.

Mr Howells said: "Counterfeiting is often the tip of a criminal iceberg.

"Criminals often use it as a lucrative way of funding other kinds of activity such as drug dealing, organised crime and terrorism."