Bristol
Avon and Somerset Police raided a house in Bristol that was being used as a distribution centre for pirate DVDs. 5,000 DVDs, along with thousands of printed inlay cards and polythene packing bags. A 36 year old man, Ming Zheng Lin, was arrested and charged under Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act and Section 107 of the Copyright and Patents Act. He appeared before Bath Magistrates Court this morning for a brief hearing. He was remanded in custody and will next appear at Bristol Crown Court on March 6, 2006.

Two other men, aged in their late 20s, who police also arrested have been released on bail pending further enquiries.

Blackburn
As a result of Hertfordshire Trading Standards receiving a complaint from the purchase of counterfeit copy of Little Britain on eBay and Blackburn Trading Standards who had a similar complaint a house in Blackburn was visited by Blackburn TS and FACT.A male aged 35 and a woman aged 29 were arrested and over 1400 DVDs were seized.

Dundee
Peter Robert Cruickshank, age 35, from Bearsdon and Wilfred Siddle, age 54, from Dundee have just pleaded guilty to copyright offences. Under an ongoing Proceeds of Crime Act investigation, total assets worth £1 million have been frozen (£850 000 and £150 000 respectively)

FACT investigators started the investigation in 2003 and they then passed it onto Police in Galloway. This culminated in a seizure in December 2003 and FACT did the product examination for this case under the Video Recordings Act.