CHILDREN in need are to benefit from the sale of counterfeit goods seized by trading standards officers.

Seizures of clothes with fake brand names have been so high that Bolton was labelled the counterfeit capital of the north.

And the illegal goods have posed a huge headache for the authorities who are not allowed to sell them on.

Thousands of pairs of jeans have ended up going up in smoke at incinerators, costing Bolton Trading Standards considerable time and money.

But officers there have come up with a novel solution which is expected to net £8,400 for the Children's Society, the country's fourth largest children's charity.

They have donated around 1,451 pairs to the society to be "sanitised" -- with all trade marks including labels, buttons and packaging removed -- with more to follow.

Prisoners at Featherstone Prison in Yorkshire have been removing the offending items from the jeans which can them be sold on in charity shops.

Pirate videos will also be sent to be wiped and re-sold as blanks.

Richard Lindley, Trading Standards group manager for Bolton, said: "It's good to know that some good comes out of this in the end.

"People think that by buying counterfeit they are not harming anybody but a lot of the money is used to fund organised crime. Criminals think of it as a quick and easy way to get cash."

Paul Tate, who is charged with acquiring stock for the Children's Society's shops, described income from counterfeit goods as "the most exciting potential income we have had in years".

Each pair of jeans costs the charity just 19p and the rest is pure profit.

Mr Tate said: "Sanitising counterfeit clothing offers us a welcome boost for our fund-raising. I am especially grateful for the forward thinking attitude of Bolton Trading Standards. They have been wonderfully supportive."

Trading Standards have also forged strong links with another charity, The Birth Defects Association.

The connections came about when Mr Lindley heard about a similar scheme operating in Staffordshire.

The Children's Society is now hoping to extend the idea nationwide.

The charity operates more than 100 projects helping the most vulnerable children and young people on the streets, in schools, within families and even in young offenders' institutions.

The BEN reported in 1999 that 9,000 pairs of fake jeans alone had been seized in the town in the previous two years.

It was revealed that premises in the town were being used to stitch glamorous brand names such as Levis, Calvin Klein, Versace, Armani and Yves St Laurent onto inferior quality trousers -- hitting legitimate traders in the pocket.