PUBS in Blackburn are being told to expect a raft of imminent prosecutions for showing Premier League football via foreign stations.

The warning comes after a landlady Julie Hanson was fined £5,500 for breaching copyright by screening games through an Albanian channel.

But Miss Hanson, who runs the Farthings pub, Rosewood Avenue, Roe Lee, Blackburn, said the pub would ‘go under’ if she did not provide the service.

She claimed ‘all the pubs in Blackburn show the matches’, adding ‘if I didn’t punters would just go elsewhere’.

The town’s landlords group admitted the practice was still a problem and said it had written to all its members to warn them.

And now the firm which investigates pubs has revealed it had gathered ‘covert evidence’ in many Blackburn pubs ahead of fresh prosecutions.

They want to send out a strong message before the football season starts again in August that the practice remains illegal, despite a test case passing through the European Court of Justice.

Following an appeal by a pub landlady from Portsmouth, EU judges are deciding whether the Premier League should be allowed to licence its content on a country-by-country basis.

No decision is imminent.

A Premier League spokesperson said they were happy the court had fined Miss Hanson, adding: “It is reassuring that such fines are being levied on those who are intent on infringing the law by utilising foreign satellite decoder cards, which is also impacting upon and unfairly influencing the competition between themselves and publicans who abide by the law.”

Investigators were tipped off that the Farthings pub was televising games via Albanian TV.

Digtalb holds the Albanian licence for showing live Premier League football on the Tring TV network, but it is breach of copyright to transmit its broadcasts in the UK.

Only Sky and ESPN have the rights to show live games in England, and these are screened so they do not to hit attendances at 3pm Saturday games.

An undercover official visited the Farthings pub and witnessed a Premier League match.

Miss Hanson was given a warning.

But when the official returned a week later, the Blackburn vs West Bromwich Albion was being shown on January 25.

Media Protection Services, the private agency which investigates television copyright breaches on behalf of the Premier League, took Miss Hanson to court.

This week she was found guilty in her absence at Hyndburn Magistrates’ Court, and fined £4,320 with £1,280 costs and a £15 victim's surcharge.

But after the case she said: “This is absolutely ridiculous.

"All the pubs in Blackburn show the matches and if I didn't then punters would just go elsewhere and I would be forced to close down.

"I bought the box from a reputable shop. This is completely unfair.

"We are already being squeezed with rises in taxes and this is just another way of taking money from our pockets. It's a disgrace."

Local entrepreneur Margo Grimshaw, whose pub and club empire included Bar Ibiza, Never Never Land and Khaz Bar, said she sympathised with publicans who were facing hard times.

She said: “I feel sorry for the licensing sorry for the licensing trade as they have taken a battering with the rise in tax on beers and the smoking ban was the final nail in the coffin "Punters have changed and if you don't give them football they won't come in.”

Geoff Sutcliffe, treasurer of the Blackburn Licensed Victuallers Association and landlord of the Rising Sun, Brownhill, admitted pubs showing games screened by foreign stations was still a problem.

He added: "We wrote to our members warning them it was illegal.

“This is the law of the land and you have to adhere to it.”

Raymond Hoskin, managing director of Media Protection Services Ltd, said the screening of live football on foreign channels was a growing problem in the area.

He said: “We have paid covert visits to many licensed premises in the area and information on further possible offences is being examined.

“Those using foreign decoder cards or internet devices to illegally receive Premier League transmissions can expect to be dealt with.”