January 23, 2018

Following a BPI Content Protection investigation, a West Midlands music pirate has been sentenced to 200 hours community service and fined more than £2,000 for manufacturing fake CDs in his living room and selling them on Facebook.

The BPI Content Protection team, working with the West Midlands Police and Wolverhampton Trading Standards, carried out test purchases of CDs from the home of pirate Paul Evans. Evans used Facebook to advertise CDs, which BPI examined and confirmed, were all counterfeits. As well as advertising specific CDs, Evans posted: “If you can’t see what you want, just ask”.

In December 2016, a search warrant was executed at Evans’ home and BPI found over 50,000 music files on his living room computer, along with stacks of counterfeit CDs that he had manufactured, ranging from Now That’s What I Call Music and Ministry of Sound compilations to the latest releases by Beyoncé and Craig David, together with lists of customer orders obtained via Facebook.

On 11 January 2018, Evans attended Wolverhampton Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to 14 intellectual property offences. Evans accepted that, although he only operated out of his living room, he was acting in the course of business and defrauding intellectual property owners. To read BPI’s report in full, click here.