UK Hands Out Longest Ever Piracy Sentence

A counterfeiter was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, after being caught with an estimated quarter of a million pounds ($0.46m) worth of merchandise. The longest ever such sentence given out in the UK. John Lamb pleaded guilty to thirty counts of trademark offences and video recording offences in respect of games, films and business software applications, following an eighteen month operation headed by ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) and Torfaen Trading Standards along with South Wales Police and the BPI (British Phonographic Institute). Roger Bennett, director general of ELSPA commented: "This is the longest prison sentence ELSPA has ever seen handed down to a games pirate, and it is gratifying to see the courts are now taking piracy seriously and enforcing suitably severe sentences. Piracy is a criminal offence, and as this case demonstrates, anyone involved in the illegal practice of counterfeiting could face not just a fine but the very real possibility of substantial jail time." Source: ELSPA