A Bromley man has been jailed for three years after running a bootleg CD business from his South East London home, in which he counterfeited all kinds of goods, including CDs, DVDs and video games, and then sold them via a website and eBay pretending they were the real deal.
Neil Norton was tracked down as the result of a three-year investigation involving Lewisham Council, Bromley Police, the Federation Against Copyright Theft and record label trade body the BPI. It's estimated he made up to £850,000 as a result of his counterfeiting over an eight year period, funds which helped him buy the Porsche, BMW, personalised number plates, cameras and computer equipment found at his home - belongings the authorities will now seek to confiscate. A destruction order will also be sought to enable all the remaining counterfeit goods, which include fake designer label clothes as well as the CDs and DVDs, to be destroyed.
Commenting on the conviction, BPI top man Geoff Taylor told CMU: "Illegal downloading has created new challenges for the music business, but physical commercial music piracy remains a huge problem. Successful multi-agency enforcement operations significantly disrupt and deter this criminal trade, and we can thank the outstanding continued efforts of the authorities for preventing the problem from spiralling out of control. But we must collectively discourage consumers from fuelling this area of crime. Few musicians are wealthy, and rely on the income from music sales and the investment record companies make in them to earn a living. Everyone deserves to be paid for their work".