TRADING standards officers have swooped on pirate movie operations in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

The raids coincided with an investigation by The Northern Echo which found that bootleg copies of hit films such as Harry Potter are freely available for sale.

Reporters were offered DVD and video versions of the movie, only released at the cinema last month, at market stalls in the region.

Versions of the new The Lord of Rings film, which went on general release this week, were also said to be available.

Last night, trading standards chiefs said they were ready to take "punitive action" against anyone dealing in illegal videos, DVDs and computer software.

Police in the region also warned that anyone buying such goods were helping to fund organised crime.

Trading standards officers in conjunction with the police seized 60 pirate videos from a house in Redcar, East Cleveland, together with television and video equipment for illegal copying.

The haul included labelling for recent smash films Moulin Rouge and Charlie's Angels.

In a separate move, officers were also executing search warrants at unnamed locations in North Yorkshire.

The county council's trading standards department said it had seized counterfeit music CDs and copying equipment with a potential value of thousands of pounds.

Richard Flinton, assistant head of North Yorkshire Trading Standards, said sophisticated counterfeiters could face jail sentences of up to ten years or heavy fines.

He said: "These people are criminals who are swindling the general public."

Detective Chief Inspector Jeff Watson, of County Durham Police, said they were working closely with trading standards in the war on the bootleg market which costs millions of pounds a year.

Often goods such as CDs and DVDs which can be easily copied using electrical equipment bought from high street stores, and knowledge gained from the Internet, are of poor quality.

Pirate versions can also hit the profits of legitimate traders and help fund the activities of criminal gangs.

Det Chief Insp Watson said: "Counterfeit goods range in quality from the very poor to the very sophisticated.

"Police intelligence does suggest, though, that higher quality fakes are linked to organised crime."

Don McCabe, of Teesside computer retailer Chips, a member of The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), said: "People dealing in this are often selling hard drugs and involved in other illegal activities.

"They see themselves as almost modern day Robin Hoods and the maths is easy to do.

"You can buy a blank CD for 30p and if you then knock out a thousand discs, there is a vast profit involved."

Anyone concerned about counterfeit goods should contact their local trading standards department.