Legal Niches

UK Videogame Counterfeiter Gets Two Additional Years in Prison

By james_fudge

UK trade group ELSPA announced that a Videogame counterfeiter has been re-imprisoned for failure to pay back restitution for his crime. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) Investigation, videogames counterfeiter Steve Adams was required to pay a court ordered £109,000 by December 25, 2009; failure to pay would result in a further 2 years imprisonment.

Adams was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for more than 50 trademark offences in 2008, after a total seizure of 32,000 discs at his home. Adams, his girlfriend Julie Frendo and accomplice Greg Gartside ran a counterfeiting operation from 2004 to 2008 in Midlands and North West England, earning them approximately £200,000 and costing the videogame, music and film industries an estimated £1million - according to ELSPA. Adams was jailed for three years following a major investigation by Wolverhampton Trading Standards, West Midlands Police and investigators from ELSPA.

Having failed to pay back the money, Adams was sentenced to a two year sentence a breach hearing in the Birmingham Magistrates Court. Read More

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Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on July 23, 2010 (boomark / email).