A man from Ceredigion has been sentenced for selling £150,000 worth of illegal DVDs.
David Robert Thomas made and sold DVDs under brand names belonging to Netflix, Amazon Technologies, Disney Enterprises, Sony and Universal City Studios LLC without the company’s consent.
Mr Thomas set up seven separate websites and used a numerous bank and PayPal accounts, including those belonging to family members while he created a sophisticated online home business producing and selling counterfeit DVDs.
Ceredigion County Council Cabinet Member for Public Protection, Councillor Matthew Vaux, said: “Counterfeiting is often thought of as a victimless crime but when someone sells fake goods, they harm the local economy by undermining legitimate retail businesses and traders, who pay taxes and provide genuine jobs for people.
“This result sends out a clear message that the sale of counterfeit goods will not be tolerated in our county and that we will not hesitate to take enforcement action against any trader found doing so.”
The 47-year-old, from Sarnau, pleaded guilty at Swansea Crown Court on Monday (November11) when he was sentenced to 20-month in prison suspended for 18 months.
As part of his punishment, David will have a four-month curfew and must undertake fifteen Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days.
Furthermore, Crime Act 2002 of confiscation and forfeiture will proceed to recover the financial benefit Mr Thomas obtained from his criminal activity.
Before determining the sentence, Judge Richards took into consideration the market value of the equivalent genuine goods that Mr Thomas had sold, the sophisticated nature of the business, but also his previous clean character and guilty plea.
The successful case was brought forward by Ceredigion County Council Public Protection’s Trading Standards Service.
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