Police swoop on DVD gang

Thousands of pirate DVDs have been seized following an undercover police operation in the city. Plain clothes police officers carried out the operation in the Locksbrook Road area, where one officer was offered a pirate DVD for sale. Following this lead, officers raided a house and seized 4,000 counterfeit DVDs with a street value of around £20,000. Police say only a large organised crime operation can be behind producing a haul of this size.

Among the discs police have seized are copies of films which are still at the cinema in the UK and will not be legitimately released on DVD for months. Titles included Final Destination 3, King Kong, The Chronicles Of Narnia and Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. During the raid, officers also discovered a processing room with hi-tech equipment to produce discs.
Alongside this, officers found DVDs packaged and ready to sell illegally. Det Sgt Gary Stephens, from Bath CID, said the operation had been a big success. "The indication from a seizure of this size is that organised crime is involved," he said. "This is one point for us to target organised crime. "It also goes to show that pirating DVDs is not always a cottage industry. "We were astonished by the quantity of DVDs that were recovered. "Other equipment seized included thousands of printed inserts, DVD storage spindles and covers for sealing the finished product. "In total there are 13 evidence bags full of items which we believe were destined to be sold illegally."

The seizure comes just days after a new police unit, dedicated to combating film piracy, was launched in London. The Metropolitan Police's Economic and Specialist Crime Command will work jointly with the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) to investigate piracy offences. Top of the new unit's list are the large organisations making vast sums of money selling pirate DVDs. Mr Stephens said: "Our investigation will complement the work of Fact, which is working hard to collate intelligence on crime trends and criminal activity in the area of film piracy offences. "This sort of crime can not only be damaging to legitimate film manufacture and distribution but also linked to more serious crime."

Raymond Leinster, director general of Fact, welcomed the police operation and said: "DVD and film piracy is a crime and these arrests show that the organised crime operations behind much of the piracy are targeting towns and cities across the UK, bringing other criminality along with them. "Avon and Somerset police is working with Fact to identify and arrest those responsible for such crimes." DVD piracy is seen as high profit and relatively low risk compared to other crimes. Piracy can also be more profitable that drug dealing. According to a report by Interpol, one kilo of pirated discs is worth more than one kilo of cannabis resin. Three people were arrested following the raid at the house in Bristol. Two have been bailed pending further inquiries and a third will appear in court at a later date.

28 february 2006
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