Courtesy of The New York Post

A Brooklyn souvenir hawker is still raking in the bucks selling unlicensed FDNY merchandise - despite being repeatedly warned to stop in the wake of Sept. 11, a Post investigation has found. City Merchandise yesterday offered to sell a batch of "FDNY" products to customers visiting the company's stall at a trade fair at the Javits Center.

The company has been told at least three times since the World Trade Center attacks that it must obtain a license to sell Fire Department merchandise, according to a nonprofit fire-safety fund affiliated with the FDNY.

The Fire Safety Education Fund has hired lawyers to crack down on unlicensed sales because the department's official products raise money for fire education and charities.

At the New York International Gift Fair yesterday, The Post found City Merchandise's vice president, Carlos Burga, showing off a catalog displaying an extensive range of FDNY merchandise - including $6 T-shirts, $8 sweatshirts, $5 hats, $4 coffee mugs and $1.25 shot glasses.

Burga boasted that the company had at least 10,000 units of each item in a Brooklyn warehouse.

"The FDNY stuff is very popular after Sept. 11 - it's a good seller," he said.

When he spotted a photographer taking pictures of the brochure, he quickly removed it from the desk.

The company later e-mailed a list of products for sale to The Post.

A lawyer for the company, Edward Toptani, claimed the sales were legal because City Merchandise had been selling FDNY merchandise for years. Sales had been made even to the Fire Department museum, he claimed.

Stephen Ruzow of the Fire Safety Education Fund said when he met company representatives, they "basically told me to go to hell."

Jeffrey Laytin, a lawyer with the firm Salans, which is representing the fund, said the company was first warned on Nov. 29 that they were selling merchandise without a license, and were given a deadline of Jan. 15 to stop. He said the fund is likely to take legal action.