Six jailed for piracy offenses in UK

James Delahunty
13 Dec 2006 14:25

Six men has been handed jail sentences for piracy offenses in the United Kingdom. The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) claims that an internet piracy ring that specialized in the production and sale of counterfeit DVDs has been broken up. The "Pir8" web forums apparently facilitated the selling of pirate material to over 13,000 users.
FACT prosecuted the case which followed a three year investigation and prosecution by FACT into the group. Assistance in the investigation was given by the BPI (the record industry trade body) Anti-Piracy Unit. Here is the list of the men aged 21 to 37 with their Pir8 nicknames and sentences.

Lee Richard Bennett ('Mack'), from South Normington, Derbyshire, and the owner of the PIR8 site was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
Barry Jarvis ('Leafy'), from Johnstown, Wrexham, the website administrator, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment.
Kevin Bowles ('Taz'), from Doncaster, but living in Darlington at the time of the offences received a one year jail sentence.
Robert Chester ('Killalot'), from Eastbourne, Sussex, also a received one year jail sentence.
Jason Morgan ('Monkfish'),from Lanchester, Co. Durham and Christopher Pomroy ('Trinity'), from Stretford, Greater Manchester were sentenced to six months' imprisonment.
Karl Smith ('Toon'), from Peterlee, Co. Durham and Marcus Jones, from Brynteg, Anglesey,were sentenced to 240 hours Community Punishment Orders.
Adrian Hodgson ('Eda'), from Kingston Upon Hull, was sentenced to 200 hours Community Punishment Order.
Also sentenced was Paul Bowes, from Co. Durham, who was not part of the conspiracy but pleaded guilty to manufacturing pirate DVDs. He was sentenced to 150 hours’ Community Punishment Order.