Pirate netted in fishy deal

Crabby counterfeiter caught in pincer move by police and trading standards officials

A man who sold copied games, films and music to trawlermen in exchange for a box of fresh crabs has been fined £3,000 in the Scottish Courts.

George Clarke was pinched by Trading Standards after he accepted the trade-off from the trawlermen as they returned to Troon harbour.

The trawlermen had not got any cash to shell out for the illegal copies of games for PC, Playstation 2 (PS2) and Playstation Portable (PSP) that Clarke was selling.

Following the incident on 3 February, 2006, Clarke's premises were then searched by officers of Strathclyde Police (Ayrshire Division) and investigators from North Ayrshire Trading Standards.

They found three computers and over 200 discs containing illegally copied games for PCs and Sony's PS2, PSP and Microsoft's Xbox games consoles. The PCs and discs were later examined by Elspa (the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association) investigators.

Clarke, aged 61, of Seamill, North Ayrshire, finally appeared before the Ayr Sheriff's Court on 5 November last year, where he admitted to ’specimen’ charges presented of selling illegal copies of games, films and music.

Commenting on the case, Michael Rawlinson, managing director of Elspa, said: “The copying of computer and video games software and any other multimedia product is illegal and has a negative impact on both local and national businesses.

"Elspa would like to thank the efforts of North and South Ayrshire Trading Standards in their attempts to remove illegal products from the marketplace.”