Bolton Teacher ran £240k Fake Football Kit Racket

A teacher who ran a £240,000 fake football kit racket has received a suspended sentence.

Ahmed Hafeji ordered huge hauls of counterfeit football kits from Nike, Adidas and Puma from China to sell at discount prices online.

Fake shirts featured the names of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, among others.

An inquiry began in April 2022 when officers launched an operation into the sales of counterfeit football kits across the UK using social media accounts.

They were tipped off by officials from Puma, who said a parcel containing fake shirts was on its way to the UK.

The parcel was intercepted and found to be addressed to Hafeji.

Undercover investigators ordered a fake shirt from Hafeji’s social media site ‘Hafe’s Kit Central’. They were told delivery would take two weeks.

When the parcel eventually arrived, officers raided the teacher’s property in Bolton and arrested him.

As he was being arrested, a further 19 fake football kits were delivered by a courier.

When questioned, Hafeji said he had been buying the kit for himself and his family. He then upscaled when friends discovered his “side hustle” and asked if he could place orders for them.

It is estimated that the total loss to the sports industry was £240,561.51, with Hafeji receiving average orders of £73 a time.

Over a seven-year period, Hafeji, who teaches Arabic to primary school pupils, sold around 12,000 counterfeit items for as little as £20.

Some of his clients were other dealers who would buy up to 100 fake kits and then sell them on the black market.

One of Hafeji’s bank accounts made £25,000 in 12 months.

The money was transferred into a savings account, which took unexplained deposits of £170,632 over six years.

At Bolton Crown Court, Hafeji admitted a charge of “selling goods bearing a registered trademark without consent of the proprietor” between 2016 and 2023.

In mitigation, Gabriele Watts said: “It didn’t start out as a huge money-making operation.

“He had been ordering shirts for himself and his family when his friends started to find out and asked for him to put in a few orders for them. Matters then went on from there.

“He is at a low risk of re-offending and is truly remorseful. He was naive to a certain degree to the true consequences and scale of his actions.

“He is truly sorry and held his hands up from the start.

“This is the first time he has been involved in the court system and he is absolutely terrified of going to prison.

“This has had a huge impact on his family and his actions have been fully felt financially throughout the family which he has naturally has found very difficult.

“He has a very close-knit family and lives with his wife, young son and parents.

“He cares for his father who has arthritis and diabetes and it falls on him to take him to medical appointments. This has had an impact on his relationship with his wife and also his elderly parents who feel ashamed at what’s happened.

“He is a hard-working individual working as a learning coach who takes children for classes and helps them with learning difficulties and behavioural matters.

“He is also a designated safeguarding leader and is a very trusted and responsible individual within the school – and he leads on pastoral care.

“He is currently undertaking a teacher training course to get professional qualifications.

“The school are aware of the situation but they also appreciate the full impact and very valuable contribution he has made to the school.

“My understanding is he will be allowed to continue his position within the school – but that could change were he be sentenced to immediate custody which would completely derail his currently promising future career. He is ashamed of what he has done.”

Hafeji received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Judge Nicholas Clarke KC said:

“There was clearly a degree of planning and organisation and it could be argued he had a leading role.”

“It was lengthy and protracted involvement in an illicit trade and these sorts of activities undermine the value of legitimate trademarks.

“It is well known that those who purchase kits for their children will ultimately be disappointed when they find they have in fact been purchasing counterfeit goods.

“But I am alive to the particular problems of prison overcrowding at this time and the problems it causes for all of those within the prison estate.”

Hafeji was ordered to complete 240 hours of community work.

His savings account, containing £68,000, has been frozen. The money is expected to be seized at a Proceeds of Crime hearing in 2024.

As part of the investigation, bank accounts belonging to his wife, her brother and her parents were frozen.