A PLOT to swamp the region with hundreds of fake Newcastle United football shirts has been smashed - a week before the real thing hits the shops.

Made for pennies in the Far East, the shoddy copies were destined for car boot sales, market stalls and pubs.

The consignment of fake shirts was seized at Newcastle Airport.

Customs officials arrested a man from Tyneside, who may now face charges and a fine of up to £10,000. He arrived early on Tuesday after flying from Thailand to Amsterdam and on to Tyneside.

The Magpies' new black and white strips will not be in the shops until next Friday.

Even Tony Blair was told he would have to wait after his agent tried to buy one for the Prime Minister's 50th birthday, last week.

The fake shirts, which are made by children for poverty wages in backstreet Bangkok factories, can be bought for as little as 50p there.

Here, they would have been sold for anything between £5 and £10.

The genuine Adidas shirts will cost £40 when they go on sale at St James' Park at midnight on Friday.

Up close, the poor quality of the fakes is easy to spot. Tell-tale signs are the shoddy stitching around the badge and on seams, no Premier league logo on the right sleeve, and spelling mistakes on the label.