A CRUSADERS star has been jailed for 15 months for running a £36,000 fake ink and computer games scam on eBay.

International winger Gareth Raynor, who left Hull FC to join the Wrexham-based side earlier this year, was told by a judge at Hull Crown Court he had ‘used up’ his good name as a result of his offences.

Raynor, 32, who won six caps for Great Britain, traded under the name ‘Genuine-Ink’ from his home in Brough, near Hull to import reconditioned second-hand ink cartridges from China.

He re-packaged them using glossy inner and outer packaging made to look like genuine brands, a trading standards spokesman said.

Nintendo DS and Gameboy cartridges were also imported and sold under the same pretence on the internet auction website.

At an earlier hearing Raynor pleaded guilty to 14 charges including breaching trademarks and fraudulent trading.

He was given nine months jail for his counterfeiting offences and a further six as a result of breaching a previous suspended sentence relating to a racially-aggravated common assault, trading standards said.

Sentencing Raynor, Judge Roger Thorn QC said: “You were not saying that your product was cheap and shoddy when advertising them via eBay and as such any purchaser was buying based on trust.

“You breached that trust. The buyers could not inspect the product until after the deal had been done. Thus both the buyer is a victim and also the producer of the product is the victim in loss of sales.

“Your good name was used up when you received your suspended sentence although you have been doing good things within the community.”

The operation came to light when officers from East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s trading standards raided Raynor’s home in August 2008 and found evidence of the £36,000 fraud.

Computers and a number of packages containing fake ink cartridges ready for dispatch were seized from the property.

A large quantity of fake ink cartridges was also discovered in the garage.

Further investigations revealed that more than 1,500 transactions involving the sale of fake ink cartridges and Nintendo DS and Gameboy games had taken place online between May 2007 and August 2008.

Computers used by Raynor were examined and revealed a string of emails in which he was ‘in effect’ asking his suppliers to make sure fake goods appeared as genuine as possible, according to trading standards.

Confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act have commenced against Raynor.