Virgin Media set top box fraudsters jailed

Three men who took part in a major fraud by selling set top box equipment that enabled people to access Virgin Media's cable TV service for free have been jailed for a total of 15 years.

A jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court was told that the men manufactured, imported and distributed in excess of 400,000 receivers across the UK during a criminal operation that lasted from January 2005 to November 2008.

The fraud was described as the biggest commercial scam ever to have been prosecuted in the UK and is understood to have cost Virgin Media around £144 million a year.

The set top boxes were sold to suppliers and dealers from across the UK and Northern Ireland, with consumers often tricked into paying hundreds of pounds to access Virgin Media's digital TV service without a monthly subscription, reports PA.

A spokesman for the cable operator said that the company's security measures usually disabled illicit set top boxes, while encryption technology since rolled out across its network has made all those receivers useless.

Virgin Media commenced its own private prosecution against the men following a joint operation with the Metropolitan police at Redbridge, Essex, and New Scotland Yard in November 2008.

Officers raided the homes of five suspects, along with commercial premises and a storage facility, finding approximately 5,000 illegal set-top boxes and £90,000 in cash, one of the largest seizures of its kind by police.

Virgin Media head of fraud and security Malcolm Davies said: "Virgin Media's dedicated security team has worked closely with police forces and forensic teams throughout the UK to identify the people behind this crime and bring them to justice.

"This case demonstrates that the courts take this type of commercial fraud very seriously and that they will act strongly. This sentence should also act as a serious warning to members of the public to steer clear of selling or purchasing illegal TV or broadband equipment.

"Purchasing unlawful equipment such as this only serves to fund organised crime and we will continue to investigate and prosecute individuals and groups connected with this type of fraud to the full extent of the law."

Last September, a man from Birmingham was sentenced to a jail term for his part in a major fraud involving the sale of modified Virgin Media set top boxes that could receive free channels.

The case followed the sentencing of two other men, also from Birmingham, in March 2010 for selling unlocked and unauthorised Virgin Media viewing cards on eBay.

In April this year, three Virgin Media workers were caught using insider information on phone voting patterns during The X Factor to place thousands of pounds in illegal bets on the show.