Pair Of Scammers Get £1M Fine For Pirating Premier League Broadcasts

Two fraudsters who supplied illegal broadcasts of Premier League football to commercial premises "have been ordered by the court to pay" close to £1M ($1.3M) -- which will go back into the "public purse," according to Colin Mann of ADVANCED TELEVISION. The individuals behind the company Digicams, Simon Hopkins and Leon Passlow, were "found guilty of supplying a variety of systems allowing their customers to view live Premier League football without making appropriate payments." At the Guildford Crown Court, the pair were ordered to pay back £992,947.60 ($1.26M) within three months "or each face up to seven more years behind bars." Their scam "involved obtaining Sky and other viewing cards using false names and addresses and then selling them on to commercial businesses including hotels, pubs and betting shops." The pair had "previously been sentenced to three and a half years in prison last August, after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud" between Jan. '08 and Sept. '12 (ADVANCED TELEVISION, 10/4).