A man who pocketed more than £1million off the back of an illegal Premier League football streaming ploy has been jailed.
Steven Mills was the mastermind behind a huge criminal operation in which fans were sold ‘Firesticks’ that allowed them to watch live top-flight matches.
The 58-year-old ran his illicit business for five years through a private Facebook group that he claimed had more than 30,000 subscribers.
Investigators from the Premier League, West Mercia Police and anti-piracy organisation FACT also managed to identify at least 1,000 of his customers.
Mills, from Shrewsbury, pleaded guilty to multiple fraud offences in June this year at Shrewsbury Crown Court and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday.
He was also convicted of a separate offence for watching the illegal content he was supplying to others.
His service, which traded under the names Pikabox and Eyepeeteevee, provided primarily UK-based customers with a bespoke app and streaming devices, including Firesticks, to watch a wide range of sports and entertainment content.
The Premier League described the operation as ‘sophisticated’ and said that Mills took ‘significant steps’ to disguise his activity from detection, such as posting bundles of cash to suppliers and operating under a number of aliases.
A judge highlighted the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and recorded tutorial videos which supported his customers to access the illegal content.
Content was also sold to a network of resellers who are currently under investigation.
Kevin Plumb, of the Premier League general counsel, said: ‘The sentence handed down by the crown court today once again clearly demonstrates the severity of piracy-related offences and the consequences that come with them.
‘It is vital that the public continue to be made aware of the dangers and criminality associated with using illegal streaming services.
‘We are aware that so-called “Firesticks” are being sold as a means of illegally accessing all kinds of content, and today’s judgment should remove any doubt that it is illegal and treated very seriously by the courts.’
Kieron Sharp, CEO of FACT, said: ‘FACT are committed to safeguarding the broadcast rights of our partners and we hope that the severity of the sentence sends out a clear message that piracy is a crime that is taken very seriously by the courts.’
Detective inspector Matt McNelis, from West Mercia Police, said: ‘This was a great example of partners from law enforcement and industry coming together to have a profound effect on this type of criminality.
‘It’s clear that no single agency alone can be as effective as closely coordinated teams working towards achieving an objective.
‘The investigation, run by the force cyber crime unit, utilised sensitive tactics to increase the preventative messaging during the arrest phase before following up again with FACT to disrupt and educate others linked to Mills earlier this year.’
Earlier this year a fraud gang who made £7,000,000 by illegally streaming Premier League games were also jailed.
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