A clothing company boss who tried to beat hard times by instructing his workers to turn out fake designer gear has had his jail term slashed by almost two-thirds.

Sukhvinder Singh Gill, 54, of Oakes Way, Oadby, initially set up the company S.G.H.T. Ltd in North Evington, Leicester, in 1996 as a legitimate garment business – but later turned to ripping off designer labels to keep the company afloat.

Father-of-three Gill was jailed for 33 months at Leicester Crown Court on July 23 last year, after admitting eight counts of unauthorised application of a registered trademark and eight other trademark offences.

On Tuesday, Lord Justice Hooper, Mr Justice Openshaw and Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court, reduced his sentence to 12 months.

The court heard that, following an investigation, Leicester City Council trading standards officers raided the factory unit at Temple Building, Temple Road, North Evington, in March 2007 and seized 3,000 counterfeit garments.

Top brand names included Ted Baker, Armani, Fred Perry, Playboy, Timberland, Boss, and Lacoste.

The trading standards officers also found 6,000 bogus designer labels. The genuine retail value of the seized items was in excess of £60,000.

The court heard "highly respected" Gill is now president of a welfare trust in India.

Allowing the appeal, Judge Cooke said: "Offending on this scale is serious. Legitimate businesses were cheated out of the profits they deserved and an immediate custodial sentence was entirely justified.

"The question is whether a shorter sentence would have sufficed, given the level of sentencing in similar cases, his guilty plea and personal mitigation," the judge added.

Going on to say that Gill is "highly respected in the Leicester Sikh community" and also cares for a disabled son, the judges slashed 21 months off his term.