A MAJOR league pirate who ran a TV and film distribution empire from the bedroom of a tiny terrace house in Blackburn has been ordered to repay more than £138,000 of his ill-gotten gains.

Student Mohammed Faisal Jabir, 25, was buying box sets of Game of Thrones, Dr Who and the Avengers Assemble films from China, for the equivalent of $1, and selling them via eBay to customers in the UK for up to £16.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Investigators from Lancashire Trading Standards found 11,500 DVDs stacked up in his bedroom when they raided his parents home in Bromley Street in July 2014, Preston Crown Court was told.

And when his accounts were examined by a financial expert, it was found he had sold upwards of 24,100 box sets or films, between around April 2013 and that summer, the court heard.

David Traynor, prosecuting on behalf of trading standards, said Jabir’s account name on eBay was ‘bighobo09’ and he had established a fake Paypal account, hobo44@live.co.uk, to an address in Lancaster Road, Preston, in the fictional name of Leo Jones.

Acting on a tip-off that this seller’s DVDs were counterfeit, trading standards officers arranged for a test purchase of a copy of The Walking Dead Seasons One to Three to be bought. Then later a copy of House MD (season eight) and Criminal Minds (season eight) were also purchased.

Mr Traynor said they appeared to be genuine but on closer analysis they could be established as fakes, a fact confirmed when a Game of Thrones box set was also acquired.

The officials, seeking to return the product, found themselves asked to return it to ‘TTJ Ltd, 60 Bromley Street, Blackburn’.

An Avengers Assemble release was also similarly bought and returned to the same delivery address, prompting the July 2014 raid.

Mr Traynor said: “Virtually all the relevant material was seized from the bedroom of this defendant.

“The whole of this room was effectively in use for the trade of DVDs with there being minimal personal items in there.”

The seizure of around 325 DVDs included the likes of Game of Thrones, Avengers Assemble, NCIS, True Blood, Doctor Who, Bones and Sherlock, with cash totalling £4,603 also uncovered, the court heard.

But it was only a forensic examination of his business records which showed the scale of his trading, with discs apparently sourced from a Chinese reseller, DHGATE.

Jabir was found to have spent £153,310 through the Chinese company, in a 15-month period. His eBay transactions showed he had sold 24,107 box sets for £370,827.

The court heard that the feedback on the defendants eBay page was mostly positive, with only around 48 complaints relating to fake DVDs.

Interviewed by trading standards, Jabir admitted that the name Leo Jones and the Preston address were bogus but insisted he didn’t know the Chinese DVDs were fake when he started buying them.

Jabir, who has no previous convictions, told investigators he would always refund anyone who complained that his products were fake and maintained that he didn’t try and undercut those selling genuine DVDs via the internet.

He admitted to running a fraudulent company, and 19 offences of unauthorised use of a registered trademark.

He was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 180 hours community service, with £5,757 court costs.

Under proceeds of crime legislation, the benefit he was judged to have made from the enterprise was £317,081, with available assets of £138,789 liable to be confiscated.

If he does not come up with the money, he could face a 12-month jail term.

Speaking after the case, County Cllr Azhar Ali, the cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “Mohammed Jabir was running a very profitable illegal business from his bedroom using internet trading sites.

“The DVDs he was selling had been manufactured in a sophisticated way and it’s clear from customer reviews and that most people were unaware they had not received the genuine article and had been taken advantage of by an illegal seller.

“Cracking down on illegal internet trading has been an increasing focus of trading standards work over recent years. This case shows that the courts take this level of offending very seriously, and will use their powers to punish offenders and confiscate all remaining proceeds.”

  • An earlier picture connected with this story, both in our print version and online, purporting to be Mohammed Faisal Jabir was incorrect and we apologise for this error