A 23-year-old trainee accountant has been sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined £15,000 for selling thousands of pounds worth of counterfeit software.

Lewisham-based Bilal Khan pleaded guilty to five offences under the Trademarks Act and asked for 11 others to be taken into consideration.

He was sentenced to an additional three months for skipping bail and going on the run for nine months. Half of the total sentence was suspended.

Khan had been selling pirate software, primarily copies of Adobe, Macromedia and Microsoft products, via online auction sites such as eBay and QXL.

In some cases he also accepted money and then failed to send out software to buyers.

The prosecution said his turnover was up to £4,500 a month.

Lewisham Trading Standards department started an investigation into Khan's activities after a London accountant complained to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) that the software he had bought on eBay was counterfeit.

The judge praised the high standard of the investigation by Trading Standards and ordered that his comments be transcribed and presented to the council in recognition of their work.

"We hope that this case will go some way to deterring those who carry out similar activities," said Lewisham's deputy mayor, Gavin Moore.

"Mr Khan has not only stolen the work of a number of software providers but has caused a lot of grief to consumers who were affected by his scam."

The court heard that Khan had used 19 aliases to set up accounts with internet auction sites, and was selling software for between £40 and £60.

In one case he used the personal details of someone taking legal action against him in the small claims court to sell more software.

When his home was raided in 2000, 236 discs of counterfeited software were found as well as boxes of blank CDs, a laptop and a CD burner.

After being tried at Greenwich Crown Court, Khan skipped bail and fled to Pakistan for nine months, where he continued his counterfeiting operation.

But on a visit to the UK he was stopped by police for a suspected faulty exhaust and arrested when his fugitive status was discovered.

"We've worked on this with Lewisham Trading Standards for two-and-a-half years," said a BSA internet investigator.

"In the end we tracked him down by making a purchase and used legal channels to back-trace where he sent the package from.

"Over 1,000 hours of time has gone into this and we're pleased to see a result."

The final sentence took into account the poor health of Khan's wife and work he had done in the prison community while on remand in Belmarsh.