Suffolk counterfeiter sentenced over pirate DVDs

Titles found included Wonder Woman 1984, Shazam and X Men Apocalypse and TV programmes including Dial 999

A counterfeiter who had 40,000 pirated DVDs at his home has been fined and ordered to pay more than £75,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

John Williams, 72 , of Great Cornard, Suffolk, pleaded guilty to two offences relating to the counterfeit cult and classic movies and TV series.

He was also fined £7,500 and given a 16-month suspended jail sentence.

Suffolk Trading Standards was praised "for its hard work" in the investigation by a county councillor.

More than 40,000 copied DVDs and other equipment used to create counterfeits were seized from John Williams' home

Suffolk County Council's trading standards team began investigating Williams, of Pot Kiln Road, after receiving a report of fake cult and classic DVDs being sold online.

In October 2021, more than 40,000 copied DVDs were seized from his home, along with computers, disc burners, a colour photocopier with printouts of DVD box paper insert sleeves, and address label stickers.

At Ipswich Crown Court, Williams pleaded guilty to one offence under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 and one under the Trademark Act 1994.

He was told to pay a Proceeds of Crime Order of £77,182, plus prosecution costs of £42,870. His jail sentence was suspended for two years.

Andrew Reid, county councillor for public protection and communities, said: "I applaud Suffolk Trading Standards for its hard work in bringing this totally unacceptable operation to a close."

Analysis showed John Williams attended film and TV fairs, making up to £1,500 in sales at each one

Graham Crisp, head of Suffolk Trading Standards, said the original complainant was a UK company called Network Distributing Ltd, whose business involved buying copyright licencing rights and would then restore and remaster classic TV and films for DVD. However, the company ceased trading in June last year with the loss of nearly 30 jobs.

Mr Crisp said: "Williams, and those that supply counterfeit discs, contributed to Network's demise and have now actually limited the amount of cult TV and film available to purchase because these titles now remain in the archives and may never become available to the public.

"We found correspondence from Williams where he said that trading standards were only concerned with large-scale counterfeiters connected to organised crime and did not have the resources or time to come after people like him.

"He was wrong.

"When we find evidence of criminal activity we will always act."