Pub directors and licensees fined record £327,400 for Illegal Sky use

[Len]

Two pub directors and licensees have been handed a record fine of more than £327,000 for illegally showing Sky transmissions.

Four people who ran between them the Prince of Wales in Stafford, the Beaufort Arms in Birmingham and the Pheasant Inn in Wolverhampton were convicted of a total of 64 offences after showing Sky Sports in their pubs, contrary to section 297(1) of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988.

Intellectual property protection organisation FACT brought the case which saw Robert Stevens, Mark Jones and Jonathan Hunt convicted of 19 offences each. Carol Keenan pleaded guilty to seven offences of a televised transmission with intent to avoid payment.

In addition to receiving criminal convictions, at a sentencing hearing on the 18th July 2018, the defendants were ordered to pay a total of £327,405 in fines and costs and Mr Hunt’s Personal Alcohol Licence was revoked.

Stephen Gerrard, prosecuting manager, FACT, said: “The licensees and company involved in this case have consistently refused to engage with us and ignored numerous warnings and offers of advice sent to them.

“This clearly demonstrates their conscious decision to offend, over a significant period of time. We were left with no option but to prosecute these individuals and we will continue to prosecute publicans who are fraudulently showing Sky programmes in their premises.“

George Lawson, head of commercial piracy at Sky, added: “We take illegal use of our programming very seriously and we remain committed to protecting our legitimate Sky customers who are unfairly losing business due to this illegal activity.”

“Those licensees who choose to televise content illegally should be aware that they are at high risk of being caught and face substantial penalties and a criminal conviction. The only legal way to Sky Sports programming in licensed premises in the UK is via a Commercial viewing agreement from Sky.”

Sky will visit several hundred pubs during the course of the football season, following up organisations it believes are screening its content illegally.