A trader who sold thousands of pounds worth of counterfeit trainers and tracksuits at markets around the Black Country has avoided an immediate jail sentence.

Sheraz Hussain defied warnings from trading standards officers and carried on selling the fake Nike, Adidas and Lacoste goods for more than a year after being cautioned to stop.

Customers to his Willenhall, Walsall and Bescot stalls were charged £25 a pair. The real items cost about £95, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told. The married father-of-two, of Red House Street, Walsall, admitted one count of selling goods with a false trademark and six of possessing them.

He was yesterday given a five-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a supervision order for 18 months.

Jonathan Salmon, prosecuting on behalf of Walsall Council, said Hussain was first found selling the counterfeit sport gear in June 2007 at Walsall Market. Officials let him off with a caution after he claimed not to realise they were fake. But he was caught again in July at a market in Willenhall.

On that occasion Hussain was not at his stall and assistants refused to give his name, but a van dropping goods off was traced to him.

Mr Salmon said: “Police raided his home and van where they found 375 counterfeit items. He claimed he had bought them all from the same man for £2,800. Given the amount he sold the goods for and the amount he bought them for, it seems clear he knew they were fakes.”

Mr Denis Desmond, defending Hussain, said the crime had been unsophisticated and was only undertaken because his family had faced serious financial problems.”

Sentencing Hussain, Recorder Balraj Bhatia told him: “You knew what you were doing was wrong. It may not have been a huge operation but these were substantial numbers of counterfeit goods.”