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26th May 2006
PROLIFIC
EBAY PIRATE JAILED FOR 6 MONTHS
Yesterday at Bradford Crown
Court a prolific DVD pirate was jailed for 6 months.
Peter Spencer, 39, of Oakhall Park, Bradford had
been trading on eBay since 2002 selling counterfeit
DVDs and making over £39,000 in less than
two years from his illegal activities. In just
one day in January 2004 Spencer had over 950 pirate
DVDs listed for sale on eBay.
Spencer pleaded Guilty to the
importation and distribution of counterfeit DVDs.
The discs had been produced in pirate DVD plants
in the Far East and had their region coding removed
so that they would play in any DVD player worldwide. Pirate
copies offered for sale included major titles
such as Lord Of The Rings, Kill Bill, School Of
Rock, Peter Pan and Matrix Revolutions.
FACT's
investigation started in 2002 when its Internet
Investigations Team detected the pirate DVDs on
sale on eBay. A large number of items were removed
from eBay but Spencer then relisted them using
other usernames. He is believed to have used over
500 identities to trade on eBay over a two year
period.
Sentencing
Spencer, Recorder Poots said:
"I
accept that your personal circumstances are very
substantial mitigation. However, offences of this
kind are viewed extremely seriously. This was
not at the lowest end of this type of case. It
was a substantial operation operating over a long
period of time. This case crossed the custody
threshold and whilst I take into account what
has been said on your behalf, custody is inevitable."
She added: "There is an element of deterrent
in the sentence."
Raymond
Leinster, FACT Director General said:
"We
are pleased that this prolific pirate DVD trader
has been awarded a term of imprisonment and that
the Court has recognised that film piracy is a
crime of significance. I would also like to thank
West Yorkshire Police for their assistance in
bringing Mr Spencer to justice.
The sale of pirate DVDs online is a growing problem
but FACT polices auction websites and other internet
sites to ensure that those making substantial
criminal gain from such activities can and will
be traced and prosecuted.
Additionally, Spencer also
received a large number of complaints from people
who had sent him payment for discs that they allegedly
never received. I would remind members of the
public that they should exercise caution when
buying DVDs and other film product from sites
such as eBay to ensure that they are not purchasing
pirate copies."
Additionally a forfeiture order
was granted for the computers and other associated
equipment used for the pirate operation.
Confiscation proceedings are
pending.
23rd May 2006
PIRATE
DVD FACTORY RAIDED - STREET VALUE OF OVER £1M
A WEEK
THIRD MAJOR LONDON OPERATION DISMANTLED SINCE
FEBRUARY
At
approx midday on 21.05.06 local officers from
Walthamstow borough discovered a large counterfeit
DVD and cannabis factory at premises in East Walthamstow,
E17.
The Met officers were on patrol in the area, which
is known for stolen and abandoned vehicles being
dumped at the location when, on further investigation
they discovered a huge DVD factory with approx
40 DVD towers, each with 9 DVD burners, 8 DVD
label printers and 2 industrial sized machines,
which appear to have recently been delivered.
The factory would be capable of producing over
300,000 DVDs a week with a street value of over
£1m.
Officers also discovered a cannabis factory attached
to the unit – containing approx 115 cannabis
plants.
London Regional Assets Recovery Team (RART), Federation
Against Copyright Theft (FACT), Waltham Forest
Trading Standards and officers from the Met's
Film Piracy Unit have been working at the location
and have found tens of thousands of pirate DVDs
as well as a large number of blank DVDs. These
include hundreds of film titles and a large amount
of pornography. Amongst the titles found were
copies of 'The Da Vinci Code', which was only
released in cinemas last week.
The factory also contained cramped and squalid
living quarters, including bedding and a kitchen
area. The operation was capable of 24-hour production
of counterfeit DVDs.
DCI Tristram Hicks, RART who will be working with
the Film Piracy Unit on this investigation said,
"This is an incredible discovery by local
officers from Walthamstow borough. This factory
has been designed to be a 24-hour operation. All
of our suspects were living and sleeping on the
premises, which have the capacity to produce hundreds
of thousands of pirate DVD's a week. Today’s
arrests are a good example of how Met officers
are tackling organised crime in and around the
capital. These people have the capacity to be
involved in a variety of crimes and we continue
to strive to put them out of business."
Raymond Leinster, FACT Director General added:
"Thanks to the diligence of officers from
Walthamstow another major pirate DVD factory has
been taken out of operation. The subsequent investigation
by the Regional Assets Recovery Team and the Film
Piracy Unit should provide detailed intelligence
on the criminal network behind this factory.
This is the third major pirate operation dismantled
since February in the Greater London area and
emphasises the increased focus by Met Police officers
on film piracy."
Five men and two women were arrested at the location.
They have been taken to an East London police
station.
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22nd May 2006
'TAXI FOR FILM PIRATES!'
FACT AT POLICE FEDERATION CONFERENCE
The
Federation Against Copyright Theft exhibited for
the first time at the Police Federation Conference
in Bournemouth last week. The FACT stand attracted
large numbers of visitors making enquiries about
using FACT expertise to assist in the fight against
film piracy.
The FACT branded London taxi also made an appearance
at the conference promoting the Film Piracy Hotline
(0845 60 34567) and the FACT website.
FACT ran a very popular competition on the stand
to win a prize of two tickets to the UK Premiere
of 'Pirates Of The Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest'
which was won by Sergeant D Stone from Suffolk
Police. The tickets were kindly donated by Buena
Vista.
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10th
May 2006
TWO JAILED AFTER POLICE
RAID ONE OF UK'S BIGGEST PIRATE DVD 'FACTORIES'
ESTIMATED STREET VALUE OF £1.2M
PER MONTH WAS BEING MADE FROM THE 'FACTORY'
Two men have been jailed for
a total of three years after admitting their part
in the running of one of the biggest ever pirate
DVD factories in the UK, capable of producing
thousands of counterfeited films each day.
John Tak Ke Lau, a chef, aged
45, of Upper Clapton Road, London E5 and Chee
Chong Liew, an unemployed 35-year-old man of the
same address, had previously pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to defraud Walt Disney, 20th Century
Fox, Warner Brothers, Sony and Columbia when they
appeared at Harrow Crown Court.
Today Lau was sent to prison
for 16 months and Liew was jailed for 21 months.
The judge recommended that Liew should be deported
at the end of his sentence.
The two Chinese men were both arrested when officers
from Kent Police’s serious crime squad discovered
the factory at an industrial unit in London earlier
this year.
It followed months of intelligence
gathering and arrests made during the force’s
Operation Excalibur raids in Medway at the end
of January.
In a joint initiative with FACT,
the Federation Against Copyright Theft, police
raided premises in Burnt Oak, Edgware on 1 February
where they found the factory and arrested Lau
and Liew.
More than 20,000 illegally copied
DVDs were seized, along with computers, over 200
DVD burners and printers used to produce labels
and covers, plus thousands of blank DVDs and plastic
cases. This was one of the largest ever pirate
DVD factories in the UK.
The factory had the capacity
to produce anything from 16,000 to 36,000 counterfeit
DVDs each day – although it is thought around
8,000 discs were actually being produced daily
with an estimated street value of around £1.2
million each month. The average cost of a fake
DVD is about £5.
‘The discovery of this
factory helped break up a criminal network supplying
counterfeit films in Kent and across the south
east and London,’ said Detective Inspector
John Biggadike, who led the inquiry.
‘After months of work
and evidence gathering Kent Police worked closely
with FACT and the Metropolitan Police to make
these arrests and close the factory.
‘People can always help
play their part in tackling piracy by refusing
to purchase fake goods. Those who buy counterfeit
films and other fakes are only helping to fund
organised crime.’
Raymond Leinster, FACT Director
General, added: ‘We are delighted that the
court has recognized the serious criminality behind
the manufacture of pirate DVDs and that custodial
sentences have been given to these two individuals.
This should be a warning that those involved in
this kind of activity can and will be dealt with
through prison sentences. I would like to thank
Kent Police and the Metropolitan Police for their
actions in this joint operation.’
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8th May 2006
WORLD FIRST AS DOGS TRAINED TO DETECT DVDS
PARTNERSHIP WITH FEDEX AND HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS
TO STOP PIRATE DVD IMPORTS
FACT has joined forces with
express delivery company FedEx and HM Revenue
& Customs to launch an exciting new initiative
to help combat DVD piracy.
As part of a project promoted
by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
FACT instigated the training of two black Labradors,
Lucky and Flo, by one of the world’s leading
experts in the field whose other clients include
police, fire and rescue services. The dogs were
trained over an eight month period to successfully
identify DVDs that may be located in boxes, envelopes
or other packaging, as well as discs concealed
amongst other goods which would then be sold illegally
in the UK. These DVDs are often smuggled by criminal
networks involved in large scale piracy.
For their first major live test,
Lucky and Flo, were put to work at FedEx’s
UK hub at Stansted Airport, and were immediately
successful in identifying packages and parcels
containing DVDs for destinations in the UK.
Raymond Leinster, Director General
of FACT added, “This is the first time dogs
have been used anywhere in the world to search
for counterfeit DVDs and the results were amazing.
With the cooperation and assistance of FedEx and
Customs we were able to properly test the dogs
in a live situation and prove that they can work
in a busy working environment.”
Mary
Callahan, Director Optical Disk Operations, Worldwide
Anti-Piracy MPAA, added: “The MPAA is delighted
with the immediate success of this initiative
which has opened up a new and highly effective
means of detection for counterfeit discs.”
“FedEx was delighted to
assist in Lucky and Flo’s first live test
in a working situation. They were amazingly successful
at identifying packages containing DVD’s,
which were opened and checked by HM Customs’
representatives. While all were legitimate shipments
on the day, our message to anyone thinking about
shipping counterfeit DVDs through the FedEx network
is simple: you’re going to get caught. FedEx
employs state-of-the art security, and now Lucky
and Flo are on the case,” said UK Managing
Director, Trevor Hoyle.
HM
Revenue & Customs Detection Manager Ian Chadwick
said "As an organisation, we are delighted
to work with FACT and FedEx to help stop the trade
in counterfeit DVD's. These dogs are one of a
number of powerful tools in detecting organised
crime. I don't think that members of the public
realise that each time they buy a counterfeit
DVD they are supporting criminal activity"
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