Four family members, Brothers Yasir, Qaisar and Amar Choudry, and their brother-in-law Mudasar Alishan who were convicted of selling counterfeit clothes, have been sentenced for a £1 million tax fraud after an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Amar Choudry, aged 38, Yasir Choudry, aged 30, Qaisar Choudry, aged 28 and Mudasar Alishan, aged 40, all residents of West Yorkshire were given suspended sentences after Trading Standards discovered they sold counterfeit clothes online.

While investigating their tax affairs, HMRC discovered the men failed to declare earnings from online sales to evade paying Income Tax, VAT and Corporation Tax.

The family members’ illegal acts breached trademarks of popular bands.

An investigation followed into an industrial-scale screen printing operation in which the trademarks of leading musicians, bands and sports teams were illegally printed on to clothing and distributed globally.

Yasir and Qaisar ran a company called YMC Clothing Ltd selling goods online.

They used a number of eBay and Amazon user accounts, in both their own and third-party names, including those of their family members.

All four men pleaded guilty to tax offences at Bradford Crown Court in May and were each sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, and 300 hours unpaid work, at the same court yesterday. YMC Clothing Ltd was also fined £500,000.

Proceedings are underway to recover the stolen money.