Man admits to selling counterfeit car accessories

A man has admitted having hundreds of phoney car accessories - to pass off as real and sell on the internet.

Ian Cronin, 65, of Wensley Road, Lowton, appeared before Wigan justices to plead guilty to 18 charges of having items such as keyrings, dust cap tyre sets and number plate screw sets in packaging identical to or likely to be mistaken for registered trade marks of vehicle manufacturers including Mercedes, Audi, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Volkswagen.

The hearing was told that on June 8 2018 Cronin went onto ebay with the seller ID “ian4550” to sell a Land Rover badge and plate screw set plus a Jaguar keyring then four days later put up for sale a Skoda dust cap tyre set.

And when the authorities pounced on November 11 that year, they found hundreds of badges, plate sets, tyre sets and keyrings. Cronin will be sentenced by a Bolton judge on October 16.