Court slaps £123,000 payback order on software pirate

A COUNTERFEITER has been ordered to pay £123,000 he made from selling pirated computer software.

Waseem Malik, 40, who was caught selling copied software at a computer fair at Rothwell Sports Centre, Leeds, in September 2007, had been subject to a Proceeds of Crime investigation by West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service (WYTS) and West Yorkshire Police.

The investigation followed a 12- week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, imposed by a judge last year.

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Malik, of Chadwick Street in Rochdale, had admitted 19 offences contrary to the Trademarks Act. He had been selling professional design software for between 5 and 10 which retails at between 3,500 and 4,500.

Of 1,000 disks seized, 431 were illegal copies.

When police raided his home they discovered a professional set-up for making pirated software including copying towers, blank disks and master copies on sale at Malik's stall.

The pirated software was from Microsoft, Adobe, Quark, Sage and Coral.

Malik has three previous convictions for similar offences.

The financial investigation found that Malik's criminal conduct netted him 259,000 but that the amount available that could be confiscated amounted to 123,380.

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Following a confiscation hearing at Leeds Crown Court, Malik has six months to pay the full amount.

If he fails to pay within this time, the judge ruled that he would have to spend 27 months in jail.

After the case, West Yorkshire's chief trading standards officer Graham Hebblethwaite said: "This is a good result for the service and should be a serious warning for anyone who deals in counterfeit goods.

"WYTS have been extremely active in a bid to reduce the sale of counterfeit goods throughout the county. New powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 means we can hit counterfeiters where it hurts – in their pocket.

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"West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service have been working very closely with the organisers of computer fairs to ensure that events run in West Yorkshire are free from counterfeit goods."

n Consumers with any information on the sale of counterfeit goods should contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.