UK Court Jury Treats Pirate TV Box Sellers as Criminals

• A Hertfordshire jury has found two TV box sellers guilty of serious crimes and fraud.
• Moreover, hardware forensic experts have provided the court with a report that talks about electric hazard risks.
• The public is once again reminded that piracy isn’t tolerated, and mere users of IPTV platforms can be considered accomplices.

The law authorities in Britain aren’t lenient with pirate tv-box sellers at all. There have been multiple recent examples that indicate how severe the associated offenses are considered, with Premier League IPTV pirates receiving imprisonment sentences, four IPTV providers being arrested in Ireland, a Scottish one receiving a fine of £50,000, a TV box seller being sent in prison for five years, and two Kodi box sellers receiving a total of 42 months in jail. The latest story concerns another two TV box sellers who are currently facing lengthy sentences under the Serious Crime Act 2007 and Fraud Act 2006.

Thomas Tewelde and Mohamed Abdou, both from London, were actually accused 2.5 years ago but were only summoned for a hearing a few days ago. The Hertfordshire jurors decided that the two are guilty of criminal offenses under the aforementioned laws, as they have intentionally encouraged prospective buyers to obtain access to paid TV services through piracy. Moreover, tests that were carried out by the Trading Standards on the confiscated devices revealed electrical safety risks. Remember, back in December 2018, this was the main argument of a new campaign against pirate TV boxes.

After a 4 day trial, the jury found the defendants guilty of intentionally encouraging the commission of an offence, contrary to Serious Crime Act as well as supplying products which failed to comply with the Electrical Equipment Safety Regulations https://t.co/PpF9ETvodq

— Andrew Butler (@AndrewButlerHCC) January 31, 2020

Terry Hone, a member of Community Safety has also made statements to warn the public about the fact that they are part of the problem and not just the receiving end of benefits. As he stated: “People who are buying these boxes may not be aware that they too could be committing a serious act of fraud as well as the associated risk of buying a box, which may not have been subject to safety checks, as in this case. If the deal appears too good to be true it likely is.”

Of course, raising the act of selling TV boxes at the same level as selling guns, dangerous drugs, committing acts of violence, robbing with the use of guns, raping, and committing homicide, is a derailment of justice according to legal experts. Sure, it sends a message to the IPTV box industry that this won’t be tolerated in the UK, but are these acts really equivalent to the above criminal offenses and are they truly comparable? While the findings of electrical hazard risks may be just incidental in the context of the inquiry, they serve as additional support to push these acts towards the high-severity edge of the spectrum in terms of legal prosecution and punishment.