Counterfeiter faces jail over sale of fake DVDs

2:57pm Friday 10th August 2007

A COUNTERFEITER faces jail after he set himself up in business making and selling pirated DVDs, York magistrates heard.

Paul Tattersfield turned his home computer into a cottage industry for counterfeit films, music CDs and computer games, complete with stacks of graphics to use for packaging.

He had more than 2,600 dodgy entertainment discs on him, in his car or at his home when trading standards officers swooped.

"He was in possession of equipment to take significant copies," said Matt Boxall, prosecuting for City of York Council. "He was in possession of a large number of discs, some of which hadn't been released and some of which had multiple copies."

Tattersfield, 55, of Chestnut Garth, Hemingbrough, pleaded guilty to four charges of having pirate DVDs for sale and three of having computer equipment for use in making pirate DVDs and other items.

Magistrates adjourned his case for a pre-sentence report and warned him that Selby magistrates will consider jailing him when they sentence him on September 11. The September bench will also decide whether to confiscate his computer.

Mr Boxall said the council had acted after shops, a cinema and DVD rental businesses in York had complained about pirate DVD sales in the area.

At 8.30am on August 13 last year, trading standard and police officers investigated Rufforth car boot sale where they caught Tattersfield selling pirated DVDs from a carrier bag in the café area.

They found more DVDs in his car and when they searched his house, they found 2,115 film DVDs, 449 music CDs and 42 computer games. All were counterfeit. The pirated films included The Devil Wears Prada, which was on release to cinemas only at the time.

They also found a computer with a new operating system and five copying programs on it, and two computer copying towers that allowed Tattersfield to write to several discs at once.

The hard drive contained 5,700 graphic files with film artware and logos for use on DVD and CD packaging and emails with lists of films.