Five men who made millions by illegally streaming premier league football matches have been jailed.
The gang sold cut-price subscriptions for £10-a-month, and bragged about making money from showing games which were otherwise unavailable to watch live in the UK due to ‘blackout’ broadcasting rules.
Mark Gould, 36, masterminded the operation from his flat in Greenwich, southeast London, and received more than £7m from over 50,000 subscribers.
He and co-conspirators Steven Gordon, Peter Jolley, William Brown and Christopher Felvus were all convicted of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and contempt of court.
Felvus was also found guilty of voyeurism and possessing indecent images of children on his computer.
A sixth gang member, Zak Smith, failed to appear at court for sentencing and a warrant has been issued for his arrest, the Premier League said.
The sentencing follows a rare private prosecution by the Premier League, who brought about the fraud prosecution in order to ‘protect some of the world’s most valuable content,’ the league’s lawyers said.
Chesterfield Crown Court heard how the gang took feeds from broadcasters in the UK, Qatar, the US, Australia and Canada and streamed them a few seconds later via their own private service, Flawless TV.
Direct subscribers paid £10 a month to watch every Premier League game, compared with about £80 a month for legal services from Sky, BT Sport and Amazon Prime.
Users could pick which games they wanted to watch from a fully-functional on-screen programme guide, which could be accessed on phones or TVs.
The personal details of many of those who paid for Flawless TV are now also in the hands of investigators, raising the question of what action might be taken against them.
Gould was jailed for 11 years for his role in the racket- the longest piracy-related sentence ever issued in the UK.
Jolley, 41, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, was handed a prison sentence of five years and two months for two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of money laundering after concealing £500,000 in his parents' bank accounts.
Gordon, 46, from Morecambe, Lancashire, was jailed for five years and nine months for two counts of conspiracy to defraud.
The Premier League said Felvus, from Pontypool, Monmouthshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud and was jailed for three years and 11 months.
Brown denied the charges against him and claimed to be an undercover agent acting in the interests of law enforcement authorities.
But the 33-year-old was convicted and jailed for four years and nine months after the Premier League said he used his technical skills to hack legitimate customers' accounts to access and copy streams - intending for them to take the blame if identified by authorities.
Premier League general counsel Kevin Plumb said: ‘Today's sentencing is the result of a long and complex prosecution of a highly sophisticated operation.
‘The sentences handed down, which are the longest sentences ever issued for piracy-related crimes, vindicate the efforts made to bring these individuals to justice and reflect the severity and extent of the crimes.
‘This prosecution is another concrete example of the clear links between piracy and wider criminality, a warning we repeatedly make.
‘While most Premier League fans enjoy watching our games in a safe way, those who were customers of these services were effectively supporting individuals involved in other sinister and dangerous organised crime.
‘The Premier League's substantial financial contribution to the entire football pyramid is made possible through the ability to sell our broadcast rights.
‘We are pleased that through rulings such as this, the courts continue to show that they recognise the importance of safeguarding the Premier League's rights.
‘We will continue to protect our rights and our fans by investigating and prosecuting illegal operators at all levels.’
But despite the convictions illegal streaming remains a big business, and other services were quick to take over after Flawless was shut down.
Research from the Intellectual Property Office estimates nearly four million people in the UK used an illegal source to watch live sport last year.
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