A postman managed to pocket over £200,000 from a piracy business targeting Sky, BT and TNT sports, a court has heard. Postie Michael Barrow allegedly provided illegal hardware and apps, allowing customers to watch Premier League matches for a fraction of the cost of legitimate subscriptions.
According to Wales Online, the potential loss to broadcasters may have been in the millions of pounds. Swansea Crown Court heard Barrow even had a “sports-themed bar” at his house where customers could come and watch the fraudulent streaming on huge screens.
Dad-of-two Barrow was jailed for 38 months, with the judge telling him he had engaged in “large-scale commercial fraud” driven by “pure greed”, despite knowing the likely sentence which awaited him if caught.
Ari Alibhai, prosecuting on behalf of the Premier League, said the defendant provided customers with apps and modified Amazon Fire TV Sticks, allowing them to unlawfully get content from broadcasters like BT Sport, TNT Sport and Sky Sport.
Alibhai said on the defendant’s own account he boasted over 1,800 customers, providing “subscription and hardware” packages at around £120 per year – a miniscule amount compared to what legitimate broadcasters were charging.
Barrow only took new customers on recommendation from existing customers and was incredibly strict in order to avoid being, as he put it, “infiltrated by Sky agents”, the court heard.
Transactions were processed through PayPal or deposited into the defendant’s NatWest account, with him urging clients to conceal the purpose of payments by describing them as purchases for classic or retro football shirts.
The court learnt that Barrow possessed a “significant degree of technical knowledge” and could guide customers on methods to circumvent the measures employed by broadcasters to combat illegal streaming of their programming.
The prosecutor said Barrow’s activities caught the attention of South Wales Police in 2021 following tip-offs to the CrimeStoppers charity, with officers calling at his Pembrokeshire residence to warn him that authorities were aware of his operations.
The defendant was then issued with what is known as a cease and desist notice by the Federation Against Copyright Theft, instructing him to stop.
As part of the notice, he was given information about previous court cases which had resulted in defendants receiving custodial sentences. Barrow also had his account suspended by Facebook on the grounds that he was infringing intellectual property rules.
The prosecutor said the reality was that 48-year-old Barrow had not been acting alone, and he said there were others above him and below him in the “piracy pyramid”.
Megan Williams, for Barrow, said it was clear from the contents of the pre-sentence report that her client had expressed genuine remorse for what he had done.
She said it was accepted that what had started in 2019 as a “misguided wish” on the part of the defendant to help friends and family then “snowballed” into something far larger. The barrister added that since his arrest, the father-of-two had been seeking help with his mental health issues.