A man has been found guilty of selling unauthorised TV boxes which allow illegal access to TV subscriptions including Sky and BT.
Mr Michael Hornung appeared in front of Manchester Crown Court (Minshull Street) on Tuesday 10 May and was convicted of selling unauthorised decoders: selling articles for use in fraud and advertising unauthorised decoders for sale. Hornung created a business out of these decoders and wanted his customers to avoid having to pay the subscription fee for broadcasting services including Sky, BT and Virgin. He would charge customers a fee for his service rather than the customers paying the Pay TV channels.
Ari Alibhai was acting for the Federation Against Copyright Theft (F.A.C.T) who have been investigating an account that sold the decoders run by Hornung from 2014 to 2017. The account was called 'NoHatsNoTrainers'.
Sentencing is due to be heard in June.
See here for a piece in the Manchester Evening News.