SUMMER blockbusters were among 350 fake DVDs seized from a Newport car-boot sale.

Top films like Van Helsing, currently at cinemas, and Hellboy, which is yet to be released in the UK, were among the counterfeit discs.

Council trading standards officers, backed up by police special constables, swooped on the rogue trader at the Pill car-boot sale on Sunday morning.

Original DVDs cost £15 on the high street, but the seized fakes were going for £2. The haul, worth £5,000 in equivalent genuine goods, also included hits Shaun of the Dead, and Starsky and Hutch, and older films like Mad Max and Starship Troopers.

Mostyn Bellamore, trading standards manager at Newport council, said: "Counterfeit goods will be cheaper and of a much poorer quality than the genuine items.

"Buyers receive poor value for money, no guarantee of the quality that buying a genuine branded product provides and also no avenue for complaint if the goods are faulty.

"More random visits to car boots and markets are planned, and anyone found trading in fake goods is liable to have the goods seized and may be prosecuted.

"Genuine Newport businesses are suffering as a result of traders that use car- boot sales to sell counterfeits to the public."

Cath Stevenson, of rental store Video View, in Bassaleg, said: "Fakes have cost us a lot of business.

"Often customers have already seen the latest releases. But they didn't go to the cinema, they've bought a pirate copy or downloaded it off the Internet."

Ruth Harris, trainee trading standards officer, said: "We've checked one DVD and it was very poor quality. Someone had used a camcorder to film the cinema screen."

Nobody has yet been charged in connection with the seizure. Shoppers who think they may have been offered, or have purchased counterfeit goods in Newport should contact trading standards on 01633 656 656. Callers can choose to remain anonymous.