A father and son have been ordered to pay out over £116,000 in fines and costs after being found guilty of screening Premier League football matches at 11 pubs via the internet.
It is a record fine handed down and the first prosecution for screening matches via the internet as opposed to the use of a foreign satellite decoder card.
Alister and Charles Darroch were each fined £33,000 and ordered to pay £25,067.72 costs after Media Protection Services (MPS) found the pair had been using the internet to screen Premier League games at 11 pubs in the Hull area.
The court rejected a defence plea that the case was affected by the on-going Karen Murphy trial as no decoder card was involved. It was alleged that the pair had avoided paying Sky £119,000 by screening maes via the internet.
The Judge noted that the pair had received over 40 warning letters prior to the prosecution. He said "it was simply convenience for both Defendants to hide behind the advice of the suppliers of the internet streaming equipment and to ignore all the warnings that they had been given".
Ray Hoskin, of MPS said: "I am disappointed that a minority of publicans still ignore the many warnings given by the courts and ourselves over a period of years but I am delighted for the majority who still respect the law and have suffered loss of trade by the activities of rogue neighbours. Our investigations and prosecutions will continue."
The advocate general's opinion on the Karen Murphy case, currently going through the European Court of Justice, voiced support for Murphy and the foreign satellite suppliers.
However, the view is not binding on the ECJ and the judges will now consider their own verdict in "complete independence". The ECJ's own ruling is expected later this year.
