Eastbourne Pirate Jailed

A man has been jailed for selling pirate DVDs at a boot fair. Trading Standards officers swooped on Mark Curtis, 30, from Paton Road, Bexhill, as he sold counterfeit films at Bramley Farm Boot Fair.

Curtis was called before Eastbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to 15 charges including breaching copyright and possessing and selling the fake DVDs.

Richard Grout, prosecuting, said, 'A joint police and Trading Standards operation resulted in the arrest of Curtis at the boot fair on June 6.

'He was selling a total of 175 counterfeit DVDs at the fair.

In a subsequent search of his home police seized a further 208 counterfeit DVDs and two computers.
'Counterfeit DVDs are a major international and national problem. It also has a negative effect on the trade of local cinemas and video shops.'
Linda Kerry, defending, said, 'His family was in a bad financial situation and he regularly went to boot fairs and saw other people were making money from selling these DVDs.

'He very foolishly thought he could jump on the bandwagon and make some money for his family but clearly he knows now that he couldn't.

'He didn't download the films from the Internet — he says he bought them and then copied them on the computer.'

Deputy district Judge Kevin Gladwell sentenced him to 180 days in jail.

He said, 'I have given you credit for your early guilty plea and co-operation with the police. But I have taken the view prison is inevitable.

'This is quite clearly a deliberate act to defraud the makers of the films of the money they were entitled to.

'You duped the general public into duping into believing the films were genuine.'

Story source: eastbournetoday.co.uk.