NO INCOME tax, no VAT... but trade officers have warned that buying seasonal gifts from wannabe Del Boys on the Fylde could be giving Osama Bin Laden a Christmas treat.

The caution came as the Anti-Counterfeiting Group revealed that recent investigations in Italy showed that al-Qaeda have been funding terrorist activities through sales of illicit cosmetics.

And Trading Standards officials in Lancashire claimed that rogue traders in the area could be funding atrocities by selling a variety of stocking fillers.

Videos, alcohol, tobacco, toys and even fake Harry Potter merchandise have been named as products manufactured abroad and shipped in bulk to the UK by several international terrorist groups. And recently a number of the black market goods seized in Denmark were found to have originated from Dubai in the Persian Gulf.

A Lancashire County Council Trading Standards spokesman said: "The sale of these items in the UK is not only illegal because of the tax evasion aspect.

"But it is obvious that all proceeds will go to funding the terrorist groups who have ordered their manufacture and distribution.

"And secondly the products do not conform to British safety standards and are unsafe resulting in numerous accidents and deaths each year.

"Our advice is that people should steer clear of these products as there is every chance that the cheap Christmas gift they bought in the pub could be helping destroy lives."