Counterfeit clothing with a street value of hundreds of thousands of pounds has been seized during a blitz on Bradford's markets.

Trading Standards officers and police have uncovered what they believe to be a massive counterfeiting operation.

They swooped on the Oastler Centre, Kirkgate Market and a lock-up store in the city. The successful raids have been hailed as a "great boost" to legitimate traders who have to compete against stalls which sell fake designer labels at low prices.

Three Bradford men were arrested during yesterday's intelligence-led operation, one suspected of being involved in manufacturing many of the fake goods. They have been released on bail pending further inquiries.

Three vans were needed to take away all the counterfeit items, which included Henri Lloyd tops, Fred Perry jumpers,Timberland hooded tops and Adidas trainers. Trading Standards officers said they may have problems finding somewhere to store it all.

Five stalls in the Oastler Centre and Kirkgate Market were found to be selling counterfeit clothes, with one displaying fakes with an estimated street value of £40,000.

All are thought to be owned by one man, who was arrested under the Trademarks Act 1994, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years' jail or an unlimited fine.

Officers later found he rented a lock-up in the city and a raid on the building unearthed evidence of creating fakes.

Paul Smith, principal officer for West Yorkshire Trading Standards, said: "It looks like he is a very big player. This has been a great haul. It's a very sophisticated way of doing this and we may just be scratching the surface of a much larger operation. It's going to be a lengthy investigation.

"It smells like this individual is importing goods and then sub-contracting them out to an embroiderer who puts labels on and bags them up in fake bags. He is banging them out at about £30 a time. We want to make sure these goods are not put on the market.

"Counterfeit in the UK costs us billions of pounds a year. It's a big problem not just in Bradford but in West Yorkshire as a whole. We are over the moon with the amount of counterfeit goods recovered today."

The swoops in Bradford were part of Operation Santa Claws, a joint police and Trading Standards operation to take counterfeit goods off the market in the run-up to Christmas.

Michael Masser, chairman of the Kirkgate Market Tenants' Association, said: "We have 50 tenants in here and there's one who appears to be trading in fake goods. The rest are honest law-abiding citizens trying to give the public genuine articles for reasonable prices.

"Retail is hard enough without this. There will always be someone who wants to ruin it for everyone and wants something for nothing."