Police seize thousands of fake CDs, DVDs and games

Police and Sandwell Trading Standards officers have raided a factory in the West Midlands suspected of producing thousands of counterfeit CDs, DVDs and video games.

An estimated £1m worth of fake goods were seized from the factory in Brierley Hill, Dudley. Included in the haul were around 30,000 fraudulent software titles, and recent music and film releases.

A further 9,000 unlawfully copied discs containing video game titles and a number of devices for 'chipping' games consoles, as well as 10,000 blank discs, were also recovered.

West Midlands Police also found seven computers attached to 35 DVD rewriters, three printers, 19 hard drives, 15 Xbox 360 consoles and two Wii games. These have been taken away for forensic examination.

A number of suspects were arrested and released on police bail pending further investigations.

Simultaneous raids on a market stall in Cradley Heath and a residential property in Halesowen were also carried out. Between 4,000-5,000 games and other digital media were seized.

John Hillier, who is the head of the crime unit for the computer and gaming industry's trade body the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa), said: “The public should be aware of many other pitfalls of counterfeit games – some will even damage hardware such as consoles including Playstation, Xbox and Wii. Other fakes will not play correctly at all.

“Most importantly, of course, pirated software comes with no quality assurance whatsoever so if a game turns out to be faulty then retailers and publishers just will not replace them.”

Elspa said that with only a few shopping days left before Christmas the public should only buy consoles and games software from reputable dealers to avoid disappointment. Just as important, heed the PEGI age ratings on the box, which help ensure that the right games reach the right players.