A NORTH Yorkshire man who masterminded Britain's biggest counterfeit toy operation has appeared in court after being on the run in Spain for nine months.

Philip Butterworth, 53, of Sovereign Park, Harrogate, imported more than 350,000 fake Bob The Builder, Tweenies and Rugrats toys which were supplied to amusement arcades in England and Wales.

Butterworth arrived in the UK on Wednesday after he was extradited from Spain following an operation involving Norfolk Trading Standards, the Home Office and Interpol.

He appeared at Norwich Crown Court yesterday on a charge of failing to answer bail and the case was adjourned for a week.

He was sentenced in his absence last year to two-and-a-half years imprisonment after he went missing on bail, but was later arrested by police in Marbella.

At earlier court hearings Butterworth and his former girlfriend, Sharon Elliott, pleaded guilty between them to 20 counts under trademark and copy right acts.

Elliott was given a 240 hours community punishment order and ordered to pay costs of more than £22,000.

The value of the toys was £333,377. They were imported from China and used as prizes in crane grab machines.

After a trading standards officer spotted the toys at a Norfolk arcade the couple's business premises in Wakefield was raided. Norfolk is one of the first trading standards departments to extradite a convicted criminal from abroad.

Updated: 10:54 Friday, June 20, 2003