Pirate DVD sellers arrested in North London

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) have announecd that three men have been arrested in London on suspicion of copyright theft and fraud, after police uncovered an organised criminal gang operating an illegal DVD counterfeiting factory.

On Monday (June 21st) City of London Police detectives seized close to 1.4 million printed inlays and 10,000 DVDs, the potential street value of which was over £2.5m. Simultaneously a second team of officers moved on a residential property and found a further 144 burning trays capable of burning over 70,000 counterfeit discs a week.

The operations are part of an ongoing venture across London between FACT and the City of London Police to ensure that the criminal networks running counterfeiting factories are dismantled and brought to justice.

On the potential damage that counterfeiting factories cause in the Capital, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Clark, from the City of London Police’s Economic Crime Directorate, said: “Illegal DVD production on this huge scale can produce both illicit earnings and the potential revenue that can fund other elements of organised crime, inclusive of drug and human trafficking. Counterfeiting can seem like a victimless crime but the reality is it causes huge damage to the film and music industry and has a detrimental effect to the UK economy both on employment and tax revenue.”