A businesswoman, who cheated Virgin Media out of potential sales of £7m by selling pirate set-top satellite tv boxes from her suburban home, avoided prison with a suspended sentence today.
Ex-estate agent Julie Morris, 40, of Laburnum Gardens, Shirley Oaks Village, Shirley illegally sold nearly 1,000 decoders via her website 'tvfriendly.com' as well as pirated video games.
The mother-of-three was raided by trading standards officers accompanied by the police and an investigator from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) at her former home in nearby Morris Close on June 22, 2009.
"There is no such thing as free cable television and you knew that," Croydon Crown Court Judge Nicholas Ainley told the first-time offender. "This was a thoroughly professional theft of intellectual property."
Morris (pictured) pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading between January 31, 2008 and June 23, 2009 by selling set top boxes, decryption codes, software and instructions to avoid paying a subscription to Virgin Media and supplying counterfeit Nintendo DS games.
Prosecutor Miss Francesca Levett told the court an ELSPA investigator bought Morris's Nintendo games bundle for £44.99, which contained 500 pirated games with a retail value of £9,500.
This prompted an investigation into 'The Digital Cable Company Ltd.' and the raid, which recovered 40 set top boxes, a decryption key reference and a document called 'Enabling Key Emulator' which gave a 10-point guide on how to unscramble channels.
Also found were advertising flyers asking: "Do you want free cable TV?"
Morris also provided customers with new codes to dodge Virgin Media's latest security measures.
Records proved her company sold at least 924 illegal set top boxes, which provided the full service of channels.
If those customers had legitimately paid Virgin Media for the same service it would have cost them a total of £7m.
"That is the notional loss to Virgin Media. We do not have accurate figures," said Miss Levett.
Similarly if all the illegal nintendo games were bought legitimately they would have cost nearly £200,000.
The prosecution estimate Morris earned up to £45,000 from the scam, but she says all profits were ploughed into funding the website and she made nothing.
Her lawyer Mr. Craig Rush told the court: "She was bored and for her own self-worth needed her own source of money."
Morris was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, suspended for two years, ordered to perform 250 hours community service and pay £5,000 costs.
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