Liverpool DJ jailed for illegally sharing Top 40 chart music

Wayne Evans illegally uploading the music as the Top 40 chart was announced each week

A DJ has pleaded guilty to illegally sharing songs from the Top 40 chart as it was announced for more than a year.

Wayne Evans, from Everton in Liverpool, ran a distribution operation that cost the music industry more than £1m and saw 700,000 tracks illegally downloaded, City of London Police said.

The 39-year-old admitted uploading music from the Official Charts Company between June 2014 and July 2015 at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.

He was jailed for 12 months

A police spokesman said Evans had shared the music as the chart was published every week through various torrent sites and also distributed other tracks through his own websites, including a cappella music to be used for DJing and remixing.

He said about 700,000 tracks were downloaded from the sites between June 2014 and July 2015, which had deprived the creators of £1,054,000.

Evans was arrested last September following a joint investigation between PRS for Music - which represents the rights of UK songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK - and the City of London Police.

The police spokesman said his conviction was the first custodial sentence to arise from the two organisations working together.

Speaking after the case, PRS for Music's Head of Litigation, Enforcement and Anti-Piracy Simon Bourn said copyright infringement "has a severe impact on the livelihoods of creators", adding: "We hope that today's sentencing sends a message... that consequences will follow".