The makers of Harris Tweed are cracking down on rogue traders selling fakes online.

The Harris Tweed Authority (HTA) has hired a team to police misuse of the brand on the internet.

SnapDragon Monitoring will target online stores selling clothing made with counterfeit Harris Tweed, which can only be produced by Hebridean weavers.

TK Maxx paid an out of court settlement reportedly worth more than £10,000 after the HTA complained the retailer had infringed its trademark in 2013.

The livelihoods of about 350 islanders on Lewis, Harris, the Uists and Barra depend on the trade.

HTA chief executive Lorna MacAulay said: "It has taken generations to build the Harris Tweed brand into the popular global phenomena we see today.

"It is our job to guard against unauthorised use of the brand and we take that role very seriously."

At its height in the 1960s more than a thousand weavers worked to produce 7.5 million metres of Harris Tweed every year.

Sales fell into decline in the 1980s but the brand has enjoyed a revival in recent years as a luxury fashion label.