UK Videogame Counterfeiter Gets Two Additional Years in Prison

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.

"We are very pleased that Mr Adams has been re-imprisoned following his refusal to pay back the money made through this highly illegal scam," said Michael Rawlinson, Director General of ELSPA "Despite serving a further two years in jail, thanks to the POCA appeal Mr Adams will still be liable for the debt upon release, which really does send the message to all would-be IP thieves that crime does not pay."

Source: ELSPA by way of Andrew Eisen.