Autographed football and rugby shirts bearing the signatures of star players are a big and booming business, but collectors may have paid out thousands of pounds for what are no more than forgeries.

Some of the best-known names in sport, including Jonny Wilkinson, Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard, may be prosecution witnesses next month when Chester Crown Court hears allegations of a major counterfeiting operation in the multimillion-pound sports memorabilia business.

Graeme Walker, owner of Chester-based Sporting Icons, and his former business partner Faisal Madani face 106 specimen charges under the Trades Descriptions Act. Mr Walker also faces trial for theft. Both deny the charges.

Prosecutors will allege that hundreds of items, ranging from football and rugby shirts to framed photographs, books and prints, were sold to the public carrying bogus autographs.

Police and trading standards officers raided the three-floor store in Chester and recovered enough clothing and other items to fill five vans. While they were there, it is claimed, a courier arrived to deliver a huge box of Ferrari racing overalls apparently signed by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.

Sporting Icons also trades over the internet and through the eBay auction website. Among the items on offer yesterday was an oil painting of the Manchester United line-up before the 1958 Munich air crash, signed by eight survivors, with a price tag of £10,000.

The company offers a certificate of authenticity that states: “After careful inspection, it is the considered opinion of Sporting Icons Limited that the autograph included in the piece is authentic. The writing habits and individual characteristics are consistent with the known signature specimens of the individual(s) concerned.”

It adds: “In the extremely unlikely event that this is proven not to be the case . . . a lifetime money-back guarantee will come into place. This will be the customer’s sole course of remedy.”

Autograph experts said yesterday that potential buyers of autographed goods could take a few simple steps to protect themselves. “It’s vital to compare the signature with another example,” Geoff Anandappa, an autograph investment adviser at the stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons, said. “If you haven’t seen an example of John Lennon’s autograph, then you won’t know whether the one you have is real.”

He added that auto-pens — machines that automatically replicate a signature — were commonly used. “All of those signatures will be identical. The signature also tends to stop abruptly rather than trailing off.”

Modern graphics could also reprint signed photographs so well that only experts could tell whether the signature was original. The best advice was to buy from a reputable dealer. “I would never buy a valuable item on eBay,” Mr Anandappa said.

Trevor Vennett-Smith, an expert in sporting memorabilia at International Autograph Auctions, predicted great disappointment among people trying to sell collections of autographs built up as investments only to find they are worthless. He said: “Make sure if you’re buying anything that you’ve got a proper address and telephone contact.”

Top signings

£3,750 Going rate for W. G. Grace’s autograph
£3,500 England 1966 World Cup Winners
£1,750 Tiger Woods, Jim Clarke
£895 Muhammad Ali

Source: Fraser’s Authographs, Top 100.
Prices are for unattributed signed photographs

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