A Bradford company director convicted of selling counterfeit car accessories has been ordered to pay back £741,136.50 under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).

Shahidur Chowdhury, 39, has six months to pay it back or faces four years in prison.

Judge John Potter made the POCA order yesterday ruling the proceeds would be seized from the sale of six of Chowdhury’s properties, including houses and a warehouse on a business park in Essex Street, Bowling – all of which were purchased from criminal benefits. Father-of-six Chowdhury was also ordered to pay £40,00 prosecution costs The order comes after Chowdhury, of Lindisfarne Road, Shipley, pleaded guilty in 2011 to 12 charges under the Trademark Act of selling counterfeit car accessories and possessing them with a view to selling. He had also asked for 14 further offences to be taken into consideration.

At that time he was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months, with 200 hours of unpaid work.

The fake items, which made up about 50 per cent of the goods stocked in the warehouse, included Vauxhall air fresheners, Land Rover boot and wash bags, and car mats. They were found by West Yorkshire Trading Standards officers in the Essex Street warehouse.

Since 2011 trading standards officers have delved deeper – working with financial investigators from Kirklees Council and with the Regional Assets Recovery Team, the court heard.

It was revealed over a two-day hearing last week that Chowdhury had used his business account to pay £25,000 in school fees and that he and his wife, now divorced, had claimed a joint income of £15,000 a year in order to get child tax benefits.

Judge Potter said Chowdhury was “an intelligent man” who was “shrewd in business, maximising where possible his personal benefits”.

But he added his evidence had lacked credibility.