Illegal suppliers of Premier League football jailed

Simon Hopkins and Leon Passlow owned Bagshot based company Digicams, which illegally sold cards intended for home viewing, enabling commercial premises to broadcast football without TV rights.

The court found that Hopkins and Passlow committed large-scale fraud, used hundreds of false names and addresses to obtain cards which were sold on to pubs, betting shops and yachts.

A spokesman for the Premier League said the sentence serves as a “reminder to the pub industry” that only Sky Sports and BT Sport are authorised to broadcast live Premier League football.

Although pubs paid Digicams a large one-off premium for the cards, they made huge savings on their monthly fees.

The scam defrauded broadcaster BskyB, who have the rights to the coverage of the Premier League, totalling a loss of £591,000.  

The defendant's homes were searched in September 2012 where payslips and paperwork was found that showed Digicams had a turnover of almost £2m a year.

At Guildford Crown Court on 19 August Hopkins and Passlow pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud between January 2008 and September 2012.

A Premier League spokesman said: “A three and a half year custodial sentence sends a clear message: Supplying systems which enable unauthorised broadcasts of Premier League football to be made in commercial premises is illegal.”

In the 2014/15 season the Premier League took action against a separate supplier – Alsat – which led to a nine month custodial sentence.

Detective sergeant Chris Rambour from Surrey Police's economic crime unit added: "This was a complex investigation which involved working closely with our partners to see that these criminals were put behind bars.

“This was a carefully planned and executed operation which has required some painstaking investigation by our officers and partners. I hope this demonstrates our determination and reassures the public that we will leave no stone unturned to put offenders before the courts.

"We will now be pursuing further action under the Proceeds of Crime Act to confiscate any assets acquired by the defendants as a result of these offences.”