Five people from a gang who were in jail for illegally streaming Premier League matches have been told by the court to give back the money they made, which is worth 3.75 million pounds.
In May 2023, Mark Gould, who the judge called the main person responsible for the illegal streaming service Flawless TV, along with four other people, were given more than 30 years in prison altogether. This was the biggest piracy punishment in the world.
Their business served over 50,000 customers and resellers, had 30 employees, and made more than £7 million in revenue from 2016 to 2021.
Gould, who was first given an 11-year prison sentence, was this week told by Derby Crown Court to give up the money he made from his criminal actions and pay back £2.35 million within three months. If he doesn’t, he could get another 10-year prison sentence.
Similar actions have been taken against four other people involved in the case, and they were told they must return more than £1.4 million or face longer time in prison.
The total amount of £3.75 million is the second biggest sum ordered in the UK against the people running an illegal streaming service.
The funds will be sent back to the public in two parts. Half will go to the Treasury, and the other half will go to organizations that help with prosecutions, such as the courts, the prosecutor’s office, and the financial investigators.
The sentencing and the later confiscation process happened because of a rare private prosecution started by the Premier League, with support from several groups including Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s Trading Standards team and the intellectual property protection group, FACT.
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Anyone who might want to do the same bad things should be stopped from doing so.
“These confiscation actions show our strong commitment to making sure people who run illegal streaming services don’t keep the money they made from their wrongdoing,” said Stefan Sergot, Premier League director of legal enforcement.”
The sentences given and the money taken in these cases show that the work to get these people held accountable was worth it and show how bad and widespread the crimes were.
Doug Love, who is the Principal Trading Standards Investigator at Hammersmith & Fulham Council, said: “People who think about doing something like this should be scared of the long prison time and the big amounts of money that were taken away in this case.”
