A MEDICAL student who started a flourishing online trade in car wheel centre caps cheated motoring giants out of more than £84,500, a court heard.

Accounts clerk Raees Usman, from Haslingden, was caught out by Lancashire trading standards when one of his eBay customers complained about the merchandise, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Investigators Julie Anne Mullen then ordered four 'BMW' caps from one of the trading site's account - autoshine15 - and it was later confirmed as counterfeit by brand protection managers from the firm.

Prosecutor Jack Troup said Usman would later confess that he had bought the caps for 60p from China.

Police and trading standards launched a joint raid on his Blackburn Road home after establishing that the eBay account was registered to Usman's mother, Sajida.

Payments to 'autoshine15' were also made to a Paypal account registered in his name, he added.

In total 879 wheel caps were found at the premises - 337 were 'Ford', a further 297 were 'Jaguar', 77 were 'BMW', 58 were 'Audi', another 47 labelled 'Porsche', with one 'Land Rover' cap.

Thirty-five of the caps had already been placed in addressed padded envelopes. More wheel caps were discovered in a garden shed outside, the court was told.

Mr Troup said that when samples of the caps were sent to the respective manufacturers, they each confirmed their batch were fakes.

Interviewed later, Usman admitted he had been running the account for two to three years, he added.

Mr Troup said that 5,368 transactions had been identified through the eBay account and the lost genuine sales would have amounted to £84,570.

Marianne Alton, defending, said her client had been "naive" but had made frank admissions to trading standards when questioned.

She told the court Usman was undertaking a medical entry-level course and hope to study for a full degree.

Usman admitted to seven trade mark offences and was given a 12-month community order, including 200 hours community service and a three-month curfew.

Recorder Christopher Hudson said: "If I thought this was a professional operation then I would have no qualms about sending you to prison for a significant length of time."