Fake car parts worth £100,000 seized in raid
More than 3,600 fake car parts have been seized in an operation carried out by South Gloucestershire Trading Standards.
Supported by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and enforcement teams from eight major car manufacturers, the counterfeit parts valued at more than £100,000 were discovered in a self-storage raid.
Seized items included fake spark plugs, oil filters, air filters, fuel filters, windscreen wipers and sensors, while officers also discovered sheets of unused counterfeit labels.
The raid came after research published last year by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that counterfeit vehicle parts valued at nearly £2.2bn were imported to the UK in 2021.
Fake car parts
Meanwhile, a recent IPO survey also revealed that one in six motorists had bought a counterfeit part in the previous 12 months alone, with most only finding out the part was fake when it faulted, or during routine service checks.
It found the most commonly purchased counterfeit parts are those which pose the most significant safety risks, such as car batteries (25%), tyres/wheels (23%), brake pads or discs (12%) and airbags (14%).
Fake parts can pose a significant safety risk. They are designed to look like genuine parts but are usually made with vastly inferior materials and manufacturing processes, and they do not undergo the rigorous testing of genuine parts, meaning they are more likely to fail.
