Suspended sentence for foreign satellite supplier
The boss of a firm that supplied foreign satellite football systems to pubs has been given a 10-month suspended sentence.
Mark Ronald Elsdon of Digisales was also ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work and pay £6,000 costs at Caernarfon Crown Court on Friday.
In March, Elsdon pleaded guilty to four offences relating to breaches of the copyright and fraud act in a landmark case at Mold Crown Court.
Elsdon was the first supplier to be arrested back in July following a raid on his premises by Conwy police and trading standards.
He faced 18 counts of offences against the Copyright Designs & Patents Act, Fraud Act and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Elsdon pleaded guilty to four specimen counts of supplying unauthorised ART (North African) decoder cards and four specimen counts of offering unauthorised Nova (Greek) decoder cards for sale for receiving Premier League football.
Judge Hughes told the court in March that the offences were serious and crossed the threshold for a custodial sentence.
A Premier League spokesman said: "This judgement shows that the courts take such offences very seriously and further shows the illegality of the supply and use of foreign satellite equipment to broadcast Premier League football in this country."
