Foreign satellite supplier gets suspended sentence
A supplier of foreign satellite football equipment has escaped jail, but been given a 10-month suspended sentence for supplying decoder cards to pubs.
Former magician Mark Elsdon, from Llandudno, Conwy, was today ordered by Caernarfon Crown Court to do 150 hours community service and pay £6,000 costs.
Elsdon pleaded guilty last month to four charges of supplying ART decoder cards and four counts of offering to sell Nova decoder cards. The court was told he had supplied 17 pubs and made £5,000 from the cards.
He is understood to be the first dealer of foreign satellite equipment to be convicted of the offence in Wales and England, under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act.
During last month's case he also denied three fraud charges, claiming the use of the cards were legal, and one charge of perverting the course of justice by asking for one of the cards to be destroyed.
Elsdon faced a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
A Premier League spokesman claimed it reinforced the "illegality" of supplying the equipment.
He said: "This judgment shows that the courts take such offences very seriously and adds to further show the illegality of the supply and use of foreign satellite equipment to broadcast Premier League football in this country."
