Another ‘counterfeit street’ shop has been cleared by police, which they have called ‘one of the most dilapidated and structurally dangerous’ premises they’ve come across.
Officers working on Operation Vulcan raided the store on Great Ducie Street, on the edge of the city centre, yesterday (June 14). Cops say they had to ‘force’ their way into the shop, which was ‘concealed behind a locked metal cage’.
Inside, they found evidence of a large shop which sold a variety of products, all counterfeit. However, that was not the most striking aspect of the shop.
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Cops say they were struck by ‘the strong smell of mould and damp’, with ‘rat poison and rat faeces covering the floor’. That was under a roof with holes in, a staircase that had been sawn in half.
Firefighters assessed the building and ‘immediately’ condemned it, a GMP spokesperson added. For Sergeant Dan Cullum, one of Operation Vulcan's specialist officers, the raid is just the first action against the owners.
He said: “This shop is in one of the worst states we’ve seen and it’s simply not safe to enter.
“One of our officers was at the top of the stairs and moved a piece of wood that looked like it was covering the lower part of the staircase, but was actually covering a large hole in the ground. Anyone who stepped on that would have gone straight through to the floor below and been seriously injured.
“There’s also mould and rat poison everywhere. It clearly demonstrates that counterfeit goods are cheap and nasty on many levels: you don’t know what you’re buying; what other more serious crime you might be funding; and you also don’t know where these items have been.
“We believe the owners of the shop were also attempting to pack up and move their wares before we could get to them. It’s been our aim all along to make it impossible for criminal enterprises to thrive in this area and I’m pleased to see the criminals feel they can no longer remain.
“However, we don’t want them setting up shop elsewhere and Operation Vulcan will thwart any attempt to move the trade - and if they do move, we will follow and shut them down.”
David Minto, Group Manager for Protection at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, added: “The conditions inside this building were very dangerous. We saw huge holes in the floors, blocked escape routes, dangerous storage of potentially flammable items, no working smoke alarms and exposed electrics, so we have served a Prohibition notice on the property.
"The work of Op Vulcan has made clear that the counterfeit trade is often conducted in substandard buildings that pose significant risk to anybody entering them. With our fire safety officers working jointly with police colleagues together we can help crack down on this activity and keep the communities of Manchester safe.”
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