DVD pirate must pay back £115,000

9:00am Thursday 6th September 2007

A MOVIE pirate who made a staggering £115,000 supplying dodgy DVDs has had to pay it all back.

"Lifestyle offender" Jonathan Paul Mills admitted offering counterfeit discs, and had already been fined for his crimes.

But, in one of the first cases of its kind in the region, a judge at York Crown Court has now ordered him to pay back the proceeds as well.

Mills, 36, was prosecuted by North Yorkshire Trading Standards officers for supplying and offering to supply counterfeit DVDs, which contravened the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

He pleaded guilty to six offences at an earlier hearing and was fined a total of £300 in respect of six offences. He was also ordered to pay £4,152.26 towards the service's legal costs. But the court also issued a confiscation order, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, for the sum of £115,000.

Counterfeiting is classed as "lifestyle offending" under the act - and as such it carries serious consequences for those who supply fake goods. As well as the penalties for the offences themselves, which can include up to ten years' imprisonment, defendants also face the possibility of losing all the proceeds of their offending, and any other monies or assets they have gained in the last six years which cannot legitimately be accounted for.

Mills, of Millside, Norton, was arrested in January 2006 following a search at another property in the town.

Computer equipment and counterfeit discs were later found dumped in a neighbour's garden.

County councillor Helen Swiers, executive member for trading standards, said: "This confiscation order was the first of its kind obtained by the trading standards service.

"It should be treated as a warning to all offenders who benefit financially from their criminal activities. There is now a power for us to investigate their benefit and also for the courts to confiscate it if they are satisfied it came from criminal activity.

"Offenders can potentially lose their liberty as well as their assets. They need to think very carefully before embarking on these activities whether it is worth such high risks."