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Suspended sentence and POCA for man who sold illegal Internet TV boxes (4 April 2017)

Date: 04/04/2017
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Suspended sentence and POCA for man who sold illegal Internet TV boxes

Hartlepool Council has prosecuted a local man who sold illegal Internet TV boxes that allowed pubs and clubs to screen pay-to-view TV free of charge.

Malcolm Mayes, 65, of Egerton Road in Hartlepool received a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for one year, when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court.

Mayes admitted breaching the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 by advertising and selling adapted IPTV boxes.

He was also ordered to pay costs of £170,000 – and a Proceeds of Crime Order was made against him for a further £80,000.

IPTV boxes – sometimes called Android boxes or Kodi boxes – allow users to watch television and movies streamed via the Internet. The boxes themselves are not illegal – but when modified, they can be used to freely view content that should otherwise be paid for, including live sport and new movies.

A box modified in this way is often described as being “fully loaded”.

Mayes was prosecuted by Hartlepool Borough Council’s Trading Standards department, following a lengthy international investigation by the National Trading Standards North East Enforcement Team.

He was found to have been selling IPTV boxes to pubs and clubs around the country for around £1,000 each, targeting them through adverts in a national magazine – which claimed his devices were “100% legal”.

Following a test purchase, a suspect device was analysed and found to have been adapted.

Trading Standards & Licensing Manager for Hartlepool Borough Council, Ian Harrison, said:

“The cost of this case has been significant to Mr Mayes – in pleading guilty, he has accepted that it is illegal to sell a device that allows the free viewing of pay-to-view television.

“This is common sense and should be obvious to anyone. Mr Mayes should not be seen as a Robin Hood-type character – in selling these devices, he wasn’t stealing from the rich to help the poor: he was stealing to make himself richer.

“In addition, many of the pubs and clubs that bought his devices lost significant amounts of money when they failed to operate as promised. Trading Standards will continue to target those traders and individuals who make their living from selling counterfeit goods – or in other ways allow intellectual property to be stolen.”


Chair of National Trading Standards, Lord Toby Harris, added:

“Mr Mayes knowingly sold these illegal boxes, which breached copyright law, misleading small businesses by falsely claiming that these devices were legal.

“I hope this conviction sends a clear message that criminal activity doesn’t pay.

“I would also warn any person or business selling or operating such a device that they are in breach of copyright law – National Trading Standards will continue to protect legitimate business and pursue those who breach copyright in this way.”


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