A city centre shopkeeper has received a suspended prison sentence after pirate clothes and goods were found in his store.

City of York Council trading standards officers found racks of counterfeit clothes and other pirated luxury goods at Miss Diva in Low Petergate, York, said Robert Stevenson, prosecuting.

The shop's owner, Francis Kerr, 69, was selling them for £10 each, well under the price of genuine clothes in other shops.

He told trading standards officers he was providing a service for people who couldn't afford the genuine article.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said Kerr's crimes impacted upon other shopkeepers who bought genuine goods wholesale and then saw their potential customers go to Miss Diva to get the cheaper pirated goods.

"It is sometimes similar men and women (who run businesses) similar to your business who suffer," he told Kerr, who had previously received a caution for mass selling of counterfeit goods.

Kerr, 69, of Milan House in Eboracum Way, off Heworth Green in York, pleaded guilty to 11 offences involving counterfeit goods in his personal capacity and 11 more as sole director of Miss Diva Too, the shop's parent company. He asked for 348 offences to be taken into consideration.

He was given a four-month prison sentence which the judge suspended because he is the main carer for his divorced wife who is disabled.

The judge said the "sting in the tail" of the case will come next year when trading standards ask a court to confiscate his assets.

For Kerr, Richard Minion said his customers knew the goods were counterfeit because of their low price.

Kerr had debts of more than £50,000 and his business had suffered when a trader using a similar name.

"That was no reason to turn to a sly way to try and make ends meet as you did," the judge told Kerr. "You took a risk in getting these goods from Manchester which you knew were counterfeit and you were caught."

Mr Stevenson said the "brands" of the counterfeit goods seized by trading standards officers in September 2014 included Jack Daniels, Boy London, Chanel and Louis Vuitton and were being sold for a total of £1,830. Had they been genuine, trading standards officers estimated they would have been sold for £7,384. Trading standards investigated the shop after a tip-off by Jack Daniels.