ELPSA Anti-Piracy Unit captures father and daughter pirating team, heavy penalties imposed

Score another one for the Anti-Piracy Unit from ELSPA, as it seems that they’ve caught another pirating outfit and nipped it at the bud. Sure, it was in plain sight for quite a while, but it’s definitely a victory. Not only were all the goods and illegal copying equipment was confiscated, but the penalties lodged against the culprits should make any future attempts at the crime a very risky business. More details at the full article.

Chalk up another one for the efforts against piracy. It seems that the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association has busted another pirating outfit, but this time, the outfit came in the form of a father-daughter team that sold illegal copies of games for a mere fraction of the original retail price.

The end result? The father gets to spend four years in jail, the daughter hasa lot of unpaid work hours to fulfill, and both have to pay a very hefty fine. Piracy is serious business indeed.

How did the sting go down, you ask? Well, it came out rather well. Codenamed “Operation Buzzard”, the sting was set after the culprit’s shop was found to be selling illegal copies of today’s popular games – and under a very obvious and very large advertisement banner.

Situated at Coed Mawr market in Flintshire, UK, the shop sold £5 (US$ 10) for each copy. After the capture of both father and daughter, the goods were also seized along with the equipment used to make the copies.

And it seems that the 46-year-old counterfieter had other crimes, one of them being claiming nearly £69,000 (US$ 138,601) worth of Income Support. Normally, this wouldn’t be a huge deal – but with the culprit often flying first class to Thailand, it warranted an increase of £190,000 (that’s US$ 381,655) in fines. And if he doesn’t pay it within six months, it’s another three years added to his jail time. Ouch.

While we certainly could wince at just how stiff the penalties are, we definitely applaud ELPSA taking this matter very seriously. Updates as we get them, and you can check out more about the Anti-Piracy Unit’s victory against all things pirate-y at the via link.