Birmingham City Council has secured its biggest ever Proceeds of Crime Act award after a company boss, who was convicted of selling counterfeit clothing on an industrial scale, was ordered to repay almost £5.5 million.

Banti Sohal, aged 41, formerly of Bernard Road, Edgbaston, was jailed for three-and-a-half years in April last year after admitting 17 charges under the Trades Mark Act.

He was charged after city council trading standards officers made their biggest ever haul of counterfeit clothing in the West Midlands.

They raided a warehouse in Smethwick in November 2008 where they discovered around 100,000 items of fake Nike, Timberland, Fred Perry, Rhino and Henri Lloyd clothing.

Had the clothing been genuine it would have been worth up to £9 million but the estimated street value was £6 million.

NR Sohal and Sons’ registered premises was a shop in City Road, Edgbaston, but just a short distance away it had a huge warehouse in Heath Street, Smethwick, where the counterfeit clothing, imported from China, was stored.

The £5,380,000 confiscation order was made at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, March 18.

Ben Mills, prosecuting, said: “At a hearing on February 14 the defence on behalf of Mr Sohal indicated that he had declined to authorise the release of the expert report prepared by accountants on his behalf.

“At that hearing the prosecution indicated that in those circumstances the prosecution will be seeking to draw adverse inferences against his non-response in the appropriate way.

“The defence have failed to discharge the burden upon them to give a full, open and accurate account of the extent of his assets.

“The defendant has chosen to put forward no evidence whatsoever, neither by way of witness statement or document.”

Mr Mills said it was estimated Sohal’s total benefit from the counterfeit business was more than £5.5 million but added: “Of course the true extent of his assets are peculiarly within his own knowledge.”

He added that council officers had only discovered assets in the shape of cash held in bank accounts and equity in various properties totalling around £350,000.

Referring to the legislation aimed at confiscating Sohal’s proceeds of crime he said: “It is designed to enable the court to confiscate a criminal’s ill-gotten gains.

"The expression ‘hidden assets’ is indicative of the fact that the prosecution can have no means of knowing how and where a defendant may have dealt with or disposed of the proceeds of his criminal activities.”

The court heard how payments of around £1.5 million had been paid in to bank accounts and that Sohal and members of his family also owned a string of properties in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and Florida.

Speaking about the figure of almost £5.5 million that had been estimated, Mr Mills added: “It is of course an extremely high figure. However, that is because this was an extremely lucrative, highly organised, large-scale scam in which the defendant had persisted over a significant period.”

Recorder Stephen Campbell paid tribute to Huw Jones, of the city council’s trading standards department and said: “Huw Jones gave fair, balanced and reliable evidence.

“He made a conservative estimate and gave concessions where appropriate. I cannot take the same view of the defendant. His account was wholly unsupported by evidence despite time to provide such.

“It was unreliable, deliberately dishonest and frankly incredible.”

In conclusion he acknowledged the sum was a high one and said Sohal would have six months to pay or face a further five years in jail.

Speaking after the case Jacqui Kennedy, director of regulatory services at Birmingham City Council said: “This is an excellent and significant result - by far the biggest confiscation order in Birmingham and one of the biggest nationally.

“Banti Sohal was a major importer and supplier of counterfeit clothing across Birmingham and the Midlands.

“The scale of his operations was such that they had the potential to undermine the local economy and adversely affect the trade of legitimate business.

“Hopefully this will send a message that not only will criminals be held responsible for their actions they will also be pursued for their ill-gotten gains.”